Three Notable Lots

Several sales of the past year that stoked spirited bidding.

High Scroller

Hailed as the masterpiece by the 18th-century imperial court painter

Qian Weicheng, Ten Auspicious Land

scapes of Taishan— which is inscribed with 10 poems written by the Qianlong Emperor—spurred a 40-minute contest that drew more than 100 bids. Collectors chased the scroll to $18.7 million, more than double its $8.9 million high estimate, at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong on April 3.

sothebys.com

Game, Set, Match

For a mere three minutes, time seemed to all but stand still as three bidders vigorously vied for Helter Skelter I, a 34-foot-wide Charles Manson–inspired mixed media on canvas by Mark Bradford. Executed in 2007, the work hailed from the collection of tennis champion John McEnroe. It achieved $11,977,943—an auction record for a living African-American artist—at Phillips in London on March 8, with the Los Angeles–based Broad museum placing the winning bid. phillips.com

Block Buster

Following a bidding war that lasted nearly 20 minutes, Leonardo da Vinci’s

Salvator Mundi (circa 1500) sold for an astounding $450,312,500 at Christie’s in New York on November 15—the “timeless treasure” tendered in a sale of postwar and contemporary art. The oil on panel, which easily quadrupled its unpublished estimate of $100 million to become the most expensive work of art ever sold, is bound for the Louvre Abu Dhabi. christies.com