Christie’s 20/21 Marquee Week Opens with Three Evening Sales totalling £197,472,600 / $263,823,394 / €226,106,127 Up 52% year on year
Adrien Meyer, Global Head of Private Sales & Co-Chairman, Impressionist & Modern Art, selling Henry Moore’s King and Queen in the new Christie’s rostrum, redesigned by Sir Jony Ive and his team at LoveFrom
LONDON – On 5 March 2026, Christie’s 20/21 Evening Sales generated a total of £197,472,600 / $263,823,394 /€226,106,127, a 52% increase on the total achieved last year, and were 96% sold by lot and 98% sold by value, continuing Christie’s long-running market leadership for 20th/21st century art in London, with day and online sales to follow.
Henry Moore’s King and Queen (conceived in 1952-53) selling for £26,345,000 /$35,196,920 / €30,165,025 after almost 8 minutes of bidding in the room across six bidders, is the highest selling lot of the London season
Significant world auction records achieved for Henry Moore and surrealist artists Dorothea Tanning and Toyen
The 25th edition of The Art of the Surreal Evening Sale sold 100% by lot and value
Modern Visionaries – The Roger and Josette Vanthournout Collection – Evening Sale achieved £40,317,750 / $53,864,514 / €46,163,824
Katharine Arnold and Keith Gill, Vice-Chairmen 20th/21st Century Art, Christie’s: “To an energy-filled auction room, Christie’s 20/21 Evening Sales continued the momentum and renewed confidence seen in the second half of last year, delivering a +52% rise year on year. The Henry Moore masterpiece King and Queen, set a world auction record for the artist and leads the London season this March. Two exceptional Richter’s, the first to be sold since the celebrated retrospective at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, were auctioned for very strong prices. Tonight’s results at Christie’s shape the conversation and set the pace for the seasons ahead globally.”
THE 20TH/21ST CENTURY: LONDON EVENING SALE
Christie’s 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale on 5 March 2026 generated a total of £114,175,900 / $152,539,002 / €130,731,406, a 39% increase on the total achieved last year, with 92% of lots sold by lot and 98% by value.
The sale saw very strong performances against estimate for Henry Moore’s King and Queen (1952-53), selling for £26,345,000 (76% above high estimate); Eduardo Chillida’s Modulación del espacio III (Modulation of Space III) (1963), selling for £3,344,000 (179% above high estimate), while Rose Wylie’s Tube Girl (2016) sold for £152,400 (118% above high estimate), coinciding with her major solo show at The Royal Academy of Art, London.
TOP FIVE LOTS
ARTIST, TITLE, YEAR
£ / $ / €
Henry Moore, King and Queen, conceived in 1952-53
£26,345,000 / $35,196,920 / €30,165,025
Wassily Kandinsky, Le rond rouge, 1939
£12,545,000 / $16,760,120 / €14,364,025
Pablo Picasso, Le peintre et son modèle, 1964
£8,520,000 / $11,382,720 / €9,755,400
Gerhard Richter, Schober (Haybarn), 1984
£8,405,000 / $11,229,080 / €9,623,725
Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild, 1991
£7,600,000/ $10,153,600 / €8,702,000
THE ART OF THE SURREAL EVENING SALE
The Art of the Surreal Evening Sale, celebrating its 25th edition this season with 100% sold by lot and value, generated a total of £42,978,950 / $57,419, 877 /€49,210,898, selling for 151% by low estimate.
The sale also set two significant world auction records: Dorothea Tanning’s Children’s Games (1942) realised £4,686,000, while Toyen’s Le devenir de la liberté (1946) achieved £3,710,000.
The highest selling work of the season was René Magritte’s Les grâces naturelles (circa 1961), which achieved £8,520,000. Two works from An Eye for the Sublime: The Renker Collection performed strongly against estimate: Joan Miró’s Peinture (1949) – selling for £4,808,000, and Pablo Picasso’s Figure (1929), selling for £2,612,000.
Continued interest was witnessed for Paul Delvaux – his La Ville lunaire (1944) achieved £4,320,000 against an estimate of £2,000,000-3,000,000; while Max Ernst’s collage on canvas Sun over the desert (1925) realised £863,600 against an estimate of £300,000-500,000.
TOP FIVE LOTS
ARTIST, TITLE, YEAR
£ / $ / €
René Magritte, Les grâces naturelles, circa 1961
£8,520,000 / $11,382,720 / €9,755,400
Joan Miró, Peinture, 1949
£4,808,000 / $6,423,488 / €5,505,160
Dorothea Tanning, Children’s Games, 1942
£4,686,000 / $6,260,496 / €5,365,470
Paul Delvaux, La Ville lunaire, 1944
£4,320,000 / $5,771,520 / €4,946,400
Toyen, Le devenir de la liberté, 1946
£3,710,000 / $4,956,560 / €4,247,950
Ottavia Marchitelli, Head of The Art of the Surreal Sale: “The 25th edition of The Art of the Surreal has once again affirmed its position as the defining moment for Surrealism at auction, with 100% sell-through rates. We are particularly thrilled to have achieved significant world auction records for the landmark works by Toyen and Dorothea Tanning. For over three decades, this sale has shaped and championed the market for Surrealist and Dada art, and tonight’s results reflect the enduring relevance and authority of that vision. We are delighted that the sale resonated so strongly with collectors worldwide. The enthusiastic response in the saleroom also underlined the exceptional provenance of these works, which have remained in private collections for decades.”
MODERN VISIONARIES – THE ROGER AND JOSETTE VANTHOURNOUT COLLECTION – EVENING SALE
Modern Visionaries – The Roger and Josette Vanthournout Collection – Evening Sale generated a total of £40,317,750 / $53,864,514 / €46,163,824, with sell-through rates of 97% by lot and 94% by value.
The top lot of the sale was Pablo Picasso’s Nu debout et femmes assises (1939), which achieved £7,004,000. Sculpture continued to witness strong results: Henry Moore’s Goslar Warrior (1973-74) realised £4,564,000, whereas Jacques Lipchitz’s Jeune fille à la tresse (conceived in 1914) sold for £2,002,000, almost three times its high estimate.
Man Ray’s La prière (The prayer) (circa 1971) attracted competitive bidding in the room for over 3 minutes, selling for £406,400, while François-Xavier Lalanne’s ‘Grenouille Fontaine’, circa 1982 realised £914,400.
TOP FIVE LOTS
ARTIST, TITLE, YEAR
£ / $ / €
Pablo Picasso, Nu debout et femmes assises, 1939
£7,004,000 / $9,357,344 / €8,019,580
Henry Moore, Goslar Warrior, 1973-74
£4,564,000 / $6,097,504 / €5,225,780
René Magritte, Le lieu-dit (The spot on the map), 1955
£3,466,000 / $4,630,576 / €3,968,570
Lucio Fontana, Concetto spaziale, Attese, 1964
£3,466,000 / $4,630,576 / €3,968,570
Jean Dubuffet, J’opterai pour l’erreur (I will choose the mistake), 1963
£2,856,000/ $3,815,616 / €3,270,120
Olivier Camu, Deputy Chairman, Impressionist and Modern Art, Christie’s: “Tonight’s results are a powerful tribute to Roger and Josette Vanthournout’s 60 year-long passion for discovering and collecting. Modern Visionaries encapsulates the breadth and spirit of the 150 years of art in the Collection. These results exemplify Christie’s leadership in bringing thoughtfully built private collections to market. We look forward to the Day Sale of the Collection and the ongoing online offering.”
Christie’s 20/21 Sales will continue as follows:
LONDON
6 March – Modern Visionaries: The Roger and Josette Vanthournout Collection Day Sale
6 March – Impressionist and Modern Art Day and Works on Paper Sale
7 March – Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale
7 March – Spellbound: The Hegewisch Collection Part II
Until 12 March – Modern Visionaries: The Roger and Josette Vanthournout Collection Online Sale / Post-War and Contemporary Art Online
18 March – Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale
19 March – Modern British and Irish Art Day Sale
PARIS – from 14 to 17 April – sales will include:
15 April – Radical Genius, Works on Paper from A Distinguished Private Collection
15 April – 20/21 Century Art – Evening Sale
16 April – Art Contemporain
17 April – Art Impressionniste & Moderne
Christie’s rostrum, originally designed and made in the 1700s for James Christie by Thomas Chippendale, has been re-designed by Sir Jony Ive and his team at LoveFrom. It was unveiled today at King Street, at the beginning of the 20/21 evening sale to a packed saleroom. This year marks 260 years since the company was founded in 1766.
All info on christies.com.
