Olympic fever spreads to London
Sales centred on sport and British art and design aim to
make a splash
By Riah Pryor. Web only
Published online: 25 July 2012
It may traditionally be a quiet season for the art market
but this summer auction houses in London
Bonhams staged “The Olympic Games Sale” on Wednesday 25
July. Among lots sold was the Henry Robert “Bobby” Pearce rowing archive, which
sold for £49,250 (est £30,000-£50,000) to an Australian buyer. A set of
photographic prints of the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Leni Riefenstahl also sold
for £3,125 (est £2,500-£3,500) and five lithographs of poster designs for the
1972 Munich Olympics by David Hockney, Tom Wesselmann, Victor Vasarely, Allen
Jones and Paul Wunderlich, fetched £500 (est £400-£600). The sale collected a
total £198,350 (est £275,000-£380,000), with just 36.1% sold by lot.
At Christie’s, staff drove a double-decker bus to South Kensington , which has been pedestrianised during the
Olympics. The 1966 example of the Routemaster design is being displayed
alongside other lots from the “The London Sale” until the auction begins on 3
September. It has an estimate of £20,000 to £30,000. The sale, which aims to
celebrate “all things British”, has a total pre-sale estimate of £1m to £1.6m
and also includes a selection of outfits once belonging to Margaret Thatcher,
priced between £800 to £1,500 and an example of the much reproduced Second
World War “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster (est £800-£1,200).
Meanwhile, Sotheby’s is hosting a series of exhibitions
until 11 August, including photographs of the painter Lucian Freud from the
Cecil Beaton archive, a selling exhibition of diamonds and a display
considering Arab women in sport by the photographer Brigitte Lacombe, which was
commissioned by the Qatar Museums Authority.
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