A de Kooning sets a European record in a muted London sale

Willem de Kooning's Untitled, a 1977 oil, set a European auction record for the artist on 15 October. It sold for £9.8 million with fees, after a final bid of £8.2 million before fees. Yet the evening around it was muted, The Art Newspaper reports.

What happened in the room

Bidding began at £7 million, below the £8 million low estimate. The auction house lists the work as lot 9, an oil on canvas of 136.8 by 151.7 cm, estimated at £8 million to £12 million. The painting was guaranteed, the report notes. It went for two and a half times its price at Sotheby's New York in 2015. The sale took place at Sotheby's New Bond Street in London.

I would need a calculator and a calm lie-down to follow that bidding.

The sale around it

The whole evening made £36.9 million before fees, short of the £39.5 million low estimate. With fees the total was £45.9 million, a little under last October's £47.6 million. Sotheby's offered 34 lots after three were withdrawn, and six did not sell. That is a sell-through rate of 82%. About 30% of lots passed their low estimate.

Other names on the night

Gerhard Richter's Abstraktes Bild, made in 1992, reached £6.7 million with fees. That was a little below its £6 million low estimate before fees. A 1969 Mark Rothko brought £3.8 million with fees, meeting its low estimate. A 2021 iPad drawing by David Hockney made £1.9 million with fees, three times its low estimate. The report calls it an auction record for an iPad work by the artist.

A Yayoi Kusama sculpture from 2021 struggled, at £250,000 before fees, a quarter of its £1 million low estimate.

Two works that did not sell

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and Jadé Fadojutimi each had a work go unsold. Estimates were £600,000 to £900,000 for the first and £350,000 to £450,000 for the second. The report quotes Stauffer, who said collectors are unwilling to take big risks. Stauffer called the two results a concern for the ultra-contemporary end of the market.

The same artist in Amsterdam

You can see more of de Kooning right now. The Rijksmuseum show Willem de Kooning at work runs from 9 October 2026 to 17 January 2027. It holds over 120 works, with drawings at its centre. Selected paintings and sculptures sit beside them.

The artist was born and raised in Rotterdam. In 1926 he stowed away on a cargo ship bound for America and settled in New York. The museum made the show with the Art Institute of Chicago and The Willem de Kooning Foundation in New York.

Two paintings hang in the Gallery of Honour near Rembrandt's Night Watch. They are Woman I and Woman and Bicycle. Adults pay €25, and visitors aged 18 and under enter free.

Our view

We think a record price tells only part of a story. The lower total and the unsold works tell the rest.

Would you visit?