Record deal for living artist
British painter Hockney’s artwork sells for US$90mil.
new york: A masterful swimming pool painting by British legend David Hockney sold for US$90.3mil (RM378mil) in New York, smashing a new auction record for a living artist.
Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) was snapped up after more than nine minutes of bidding, dominated by two rival telephone bidders.
It left for dust the previous record held by American artist Jeff Koons and his Balloon Dog ( Orange), which sold for US$ 58.4mil ( RM244mil) at Christie’s in 2013.
It was standing room only to watch history in the making at Christie’s, where applause broke out when the epic sale concluded, the painting hammering for US$80mil (RM334mil).
The buyer’s premium and commission took the final price for the canvas, which adorned the wall of the bidding room, to US$90,312,500, the auction house announced on Thursday.
The US$90mil price tag was all the more astonishing given the roughly US$20,000 that Hockney told CNN his dealer originally sold the painting for in 1972, subsequently believing it had been undervalued.
Hockney told the network he thought that was “a lot of money at the time, but within six months it was sold again for US$50,000”.
Thursday’s price was more than three times the 81-year-old’s previous auction record – US$28.4mil (RM118mil) for Pacific Coast Highway and Santa Monica from 1990 at Christie’s great rival, Sotheby’s, in May.
“I hope he’s not upset that we sold it for so much money,” Alex Rotter, Christie’s co-chairman of post-war and contemporary art, said when asked what he thought Hockney’s reaction would be to the colossal price tag.
“I’m a big fan of his,” he added.