London’s March auctions delivered strong results for modern and contemporary art, offering an early indication of demand as the spring season gets underway.
See also: Major Collections Lead London’s March Auctions
The first major sale took place on March 4 with Sotheby’s Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction. Works from several important collections spanned more than a century of art history, from Impressionism to the present day.
The Lewis Collection performed particularly well with key works from the School of London. Francis Bacon’s Self-Portrait (1972) achieved the highest price of the evening at £16,035,000. Lucian Freud’s Blond Girl on a Bed (1987) and A Young Painter (1957–58) also placed among the top five, selling for £7,410,000 and £7,166,000 respectively. Leon Kossoff’s Children’s Swimming Pool, 11 o’clock Saturday Morning, August (1969) delivered the biggest surprise of the sale. The painting far exceeded its estimate of £600,000–£800,000 and set a new auction record for the artist at £5,214,000.
See also: Francis Bacon: The Tragic Artist
Second and third place among the evening’s top results went to Lucio Fontana’s Concetto spaziale (1960), from a German private collection (£9,825,000), and Claude Monet’s Maison de jardinier (1884), from another private collection (£8,215,000). By the end of the evening, every lot had sold, bringing the total to £131 million and marking a 110 percent increase compared with the equivalent sale the previous year.
See also: Lucio Fontana: The Man Behind the Cut
Alex Branczik, Chairman of Modern and Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s London, commented: “In my twenty-two years at Sotheby’s in London, we have not had a white glove various owner sale in my field, until tonight. The success of the sale is testament to the quality of the single owner collections and stellar works that were entrusted to us, which together drove bidding from no fewer than 40 countries. When you offer a painting of such quality as the Kossoff for the first time in thirty years, it's a thrill to be able to place it in a collection where it will shine just as it did in the Lewis Collection."
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Christie’s held its three major auctions of London Marquee Week on the evening of March 5. The first, the 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale, achieved a total of £114,175,900 with a sell-through rate of 98 percent by lot.
The top lot was Henry Moore’s King and Queen (1952–53), which set a new auction record for the British sculptor at £26,345,000. Other leading results included Wassily Kandinsky’s Le rond rouge (1939; £12,545,000), Pablo Picasso’s Le peintre et son modèle (1964; £8,520,000), and two works by Gerhard Richter: Schober (1984; £8,405,000) and Abstraktes Bild (1991; £7,600,000).
See also: Henry Moore: 8 Little Known Facts
This was followed by the 25th edition of The Art of the Surreal Evening Sale, which achieved a 100 percent sell-through rate and brought in £42,978,950.
Two female artists entered the auction’s top five and both set new auction records: Dorothea Tanning with Children’s Games (1942; £4,686,000) and the Czech Surrealist Toyen with Le devenir de la liberté (1946; £3,710,000). The highest price of the sale went to René Magritte’s Les grâces naturelles (c. 1961), which sold for £8,520,000. It was followed by Joan Miró’s Peinture (1949; £4,808,000). Paul Delvaux’s La Ville lunaire (1944; £4,320,000) placed fourth.
See also: Dorothea Tanning: If Dreams Could Talk
The evening concluded with Modern Visionaries: The Roger and Josette Vanthournout Collection – Evening Sale. Works from the Belgian collection brought a total of £40,317,750, with 97% of lots sold.
See also: Wassily Kandinsky: 10 Facts to Know
The top results included Pablo Picasso’s Standing Nude and Seated Women (1939; £7,004,000), Henry Moore’s Goslar Warrior (1973–74; £4,564,000), René Magritte’s Le lieu-dit (1955; £3,466,000), Lucio Fontana’s Concetto spaziale, Attese (1964; £3,466,000), and Jean Dubuffet’s J’opterai pour l’erreur (1963; £2,856,000).
Together, the three auctions generated £197,472,600, representing a 52 percent increase compared with Christie’s London sales in 2025.
Katharine Arnold and Keith Gill, Deputy Chairs of Christie’s 20th and 21st Century Art Department, commented: “To an energy-filled auction room, Christie's 20/21 Evening Sales continued the momentum and renewed confidence seen in the second half of last year, delivering a +52% rise year on year. The Henry Moore masterpiece King and Queen, set a world auction record for the artist and leads the London season this March. Two exceptional Richter's, the first to be sold since the celebrated retrospective at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, were auctioned for very strong prices. Tonight's results at Christie's shape the conversation and set the pace for the seasons ahead globally.”
Beyond the upcoming auctions in Paris and Hong Kong, the next major event on the international calendar will be Marquee Week in New York in May.
