The Art Newspaper: Bidding war for Bowie’s angst-ridden Auerbach in record-breaking sale
Every lot offered at Sotheby’s London last night from the eclectic collection of David Bowie was sold, with almost all pieces skyrocketing far past their estimates. The auction, which set new records for 11 British artists and made a total of £24.4m, proved that the power of the late musician’s name outweighed the gloom ushered in by the election of Donald Trump just two days earlier.
Most of the art on the block was British 20th-century painting, deeply unfashionable when it was acquired by Bowie in the 1990s and arguably still unappreciated today; some pieces were derivative of movements in Europe or the US, while others were dark or strange. “Bowie was attracted to the unusual, the difficult, the spaces between,” said Kate Chertavian who worked as curator of his collection for eight years.