Sotheby’s June Modern and contemporary art evening sale in London netted £50.8m (£62.5m with fees) from 48 lots, with an 87% sell-through rate, falling below the pre-sale estimate of £55.2m to £81.1m and marking a 25% decrease from last year’s equivalent sale. The top lot was Tamara de Lempicka’s *La Belle Rafaëla* (1927), which sold for £6.1m (£7.4m with fees), while a Jenny Saville drawing *Mirror* (2011-12) achieved an auction record for the artist at £1.7m (£2.1m with fees). Several high-profile works were passed, including Egon Schiele’s *Portrait Study (Head of a Girl, Hilde Ziegler)* and Barbara Hepworth’s *Vertical Forms*, reflecting cautious bidding in a bearish market.
This sale matters because it underscores the ongoing fragility of the art auction market, particularly for Modern and Impressionist works, as Sotheby’s continues to hold evening sales while Christie’s has paused its own. The mixed results—with strong performances for rare works like Marlow Moss’s *White, Black, Blue and Red* (setting an auction record) and muted demand for established names—signal a shift in collector confidence and a preference for scarcity and fresh-to-market pieces. The outcome may influence how auction houses approach future sales amid persistent market uncertainty.