On 9 October 2024, Christie’s 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale realised £83,832,250 / €97,556,260 / $107,147,925. The result, up 83 per cent on last October’s total of £44,691,420, and with sell-through rates of 96 per cent by value and 89 per cent by lot, cements the auction’s central role in the capital’s Frieze Week season.

Bidders from 23 countries competed for 52 lots across the curated sale. Split by region, 50 per cent of buyers were from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, while 28 per cent came from the USA and 22 per cent from Asia. Christie’s unique 20/21 programme — showcasing works by modern innovators and contemporary icons — continued to attract new, younger clients, with 23 per cent of buyers being millennials or younger.

Lucian Freud portraits

Topping the bill was Lucian Freud’s painting Ria, Naked Portrait (2006-07). Depicting the young art handler Ria Kirby, who met the 83-year-old Freud while installing an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London in 2006, the potrait’s thick, impasto surface was slowly built up over 2,400 hours of sittings spread across 16 months.

In the same collection since it was purchased from Acquavella Galleries in 2008, it sold to a telephone bidder for £11,810,000.