ELEVEN RECORD PRICES SET AT SOTHEBY’S LONDON SALE

Peter Doig’s White Canoe, 1990–91, became the most expensive artwork by a living European artist last night at Sotheby’s London sale of contemporary art, reports Linda Sandler for Bloomberg. The evening brought in £45.8 million ($90.2 million), beating the auction house’s top estimate. Doig’s canvas, which Charles Saatchi sold to Sotheby’s last year, fetched £5.7 million ($11,157,361) including commission. “Some people just do not realize that this kind of price appreciation in such a short time is not rational, or they do realize and just don’t care,” said hedge-fund manager and art collector Adam Sender. “It’s a new world,” said Tobias Meyer, Sotheby’s New York–based contemporary art chief and the night’s auctioneer. “The new buyers don’t care about price.” Record prices were also set for Gerhard Richter, Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Andreas Gursky, Frank Auerbach, and six others. Nineteen percent of the lots, however, didn’t sell, including works by Martin Kippenberger, Thomas Scheibitz, and Georg Baselitz.