Category: Auction House
Nationality: British/ American
Last Year: 15

Gone are the guarantees. Well, not exactly. Some just won’t go away; like the one of $40 million for a Francis Bacon painting, on which Christie’s allegedly reneged when markets turned south last autumn (according to reports, Gorvy was one of the ‘big guns’ dispatched to secure the work in the first place). Nevertheless, last May’s Evening Sale for contemporary art reached close to $94 million. Though this was paltry compared to the $348.2 million pulled in the previous year, 50 of the 54 lots sold, which is something of a triumph in itself, and included records for David Hockney, Claes Oldenburg and Kerry James Marshall.