Christie’s postwar and contemporary art day sale in London on Thursday totaled £12.2 million ($16.4 million), with over 80% of lots sold and 90% of those achieving prices within or above their presale estimates. Standout results included a 2020 painting by Somaya Critchlow that sold for £57,150 (est. £15,000–£20,000), a small Etel Adnan painting that fetched £107,950 (est. £30,000–£50,000), and a Michelangelo Pistoletto mirror piece that soared to £234,950—seven times its estimate. Works from the Ole Faarup collection and the Tiqui Atencio and Ago Demirdjian collection also performed well. However, a Toyin Ojih Odutola painting failed to sell, and Gerhard Richter’s gray paintings from the 1970s attracted little interest, mirroring a similar failure in Christie’s evening sale the previous day.
The day sale results reveal a selective market where buyers are willing to pay premiums for fresh, compelling works but remain cautious with more challenging or overexposed pieces. The strong performance of works by emerging and mid-career artists like Critchlow and Lucas, alongside the failure of Richter’s gray paintings despite a concurrent retrospective at the Louis Vuitton Foundation, underscores a shift in collector appetite toward distinctive, accessible works over canonical but difficult material. This pickiness signals a maturing market that rewards quality and novelty over brand alone.