Sotheby's flies with a triptych by Francis Bacon

(ANSA) - NEW YORK, JUNE 30 - With a nearly $ 85 million "Triptych" by FrancisBacon (the third highest price for the artist), Sotheby's has successfully tested the new art market at the time of the coronavirus: three consecutive sales - a five-hour transcontinental marathon that left Hong Kong at 6:30 in the morning and ended in New York just before midnight - the auction house star hitter, Oliver Barker, stood up to international colleagues by welcoming bets in an empty lounge delquartier general of New Bond Street in London.
    After a ten-minute duel with 400 and 900 thousand dollar increases, Bacon's "Triptych Inspired by Aeschylus' Oresteia", offered for sale by a private museum in Oslo, went to a collector who was pointing by phone from New York against a rival online from China. The Bacon had been delivered to Sotheby's before the pandemic: it should have been sold for free with a $ 60 million guarantee from the auction house.
    The "hybrid" format put a strain on Barker's stamina: in the end, when the last lot was sold, London had started to dawn. Three sessions: one dedicated to the collection of the Denver collector, GinnyWilliams, and the other two respectively to contemporary art and the Impressionists and modern art. The total proceeds were $ 363.2 million, close to the peak of the auction estimate, with a percentage of works sold of 93 percent.
   In addition to Bacon, dated to 1981 and which the Norwegian museum had attempted to sell privately for one hundred million, the other three top pieces were ClyffordStill's "PH-144 (1947-Y-No.1)", beaten for 28.7 million dollars and Roy Lichtenstein's "White Brushstroke" (25.4 million including auction fees).
   (HANDLE).