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Auction PR Publicity Announcements News and Information

Sotheby’s Best Sale Ever Contemporary Art Sale Totals $362,037,000

CONTEMPORARY ART SALE TOTALS $362,037,000, ABOVE ITS HIGH ESTIMATE, AND THE HIGHEST TOTAL OF THE TWO WEEK SERIES

FRANCIS BACON’S TRIPTYCH, 1976, COMMANDS $86,281,000, A RECORD FOR A CONTEMPORARY WORK OF ART AT AUCTION AND FOR THE ARTIST AT AUCTION

ADDITIONAL AUCTION RECORDS SET FOR

SEVENTEEN ARTISTS AT AUCTION, INCLUDING YVES KLEIN, TAKASHI MURAKAMI, ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG, TOM WESSELMANN AND PIERO MANZONI

FIRST OFFERING OF PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF HELGA AND WALTHER LAUFFS, ONE OF THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY SINGLE-OWNER OFFERINGS OF CONTEMPORARY ART TO EVER APPEAR ON THE MARKET, BRINGS $96,105,000

New York, NY, May 14, 2008 – Tonight’s auction at Sotheby’s of Contemporary Art, which totaled $362,037,000, was the best auction in the Company’s history (est. $288.1/356.7 million*), surpassing the high estimate and bringing the highest total of the two week series of auctions in New York as well as the top lot of the series. “We saw hunger for great works of art from a truly global community,” said Tobias Meyer, Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s and the evening’s auctioneer. The cornerstone of the sale was Francis Bacon’s Triptych, 1976, a masterpiece of the 20th century and the most important work by the artist in private hands, which commanded $86,281,000, selling to a Private European Collector (lot 33, est. in the region of $70 million). “This painting, which is one of the great paintings of the 20th Century, is worth every penny,” said Mr. Meyer. “The Bacon set a record for a Contemporary work of art at auction, and for the artist at auction.”

The sale also featured Property from the Collection of Helga and Walther Lauffs, one of the most extraordinary single-owner offerings of Contemporary Art to ever appear on the market, which brought $96,105,000, far above its high estimate (est. $47.1/65.2 million). Eighteen artist records were set this evening, for works by Francis Bacon, Yves Klein, Takashi Murakami, Robert Rauschenberg, Tom Wesselmann, Piero Manzoni, Robert Smithson, Georg Baselitz, Hans Hofmann, Lee Krasner, Dan Flavin, Claes Oldenburg, Carl Andre, Joseph Beuys, Robert Mangold, Brice Marden and Jeff Wall.

Alex Rotter, Head of Contemporary Art in New York, continued: “This evening’s extraordinary sale saw a remarkable eight lots sell for more than $10 million, 14 lots selling for more than $5 million and 55 lots selling for more than $1 million. The sale achieved an average lot value of $4,959,410.”

Anthony Grant, International Senior Specialist of Contemporary Art, commented: “Tonight was a night for iconic works. Across the board, whatever the generation, we set records for Flavin, Murakami, Bacon, Rauschenberg, Hofmann and Gupta, among many others. There was an extraordinary response to the Lauffs Collection – the market for these European works in America is unparalleled. We saw the affirmation of Minimalism, with LeWitt, Tuttle, Flavin, Andre, Beuys and Mangold rising to the top.”

Francis Bacon’s Triptych, 1976, a masterwork of the first order, which commanded $86,281,000, provokes a wide range of possible interpretations in a painting which matches the tragic grandeur of Aeschylus, the 5th century B. C. Greek playwright. The work was the centrepiece of Francis Bacon’s most important show of new work of the 1970s, held at the Galerie Claude Bernard in Paris in 1977, which closely documented Bacon’s unease and restless mind during that time. One of only three large-format triptychs in the Bernard exhibition, it was illustrated on the cover of the catalogue. Dense with symbolism, the three panels in Triptych, 1976, are filled with a complex, highly charged allegory and supreme paint-handling which shows Bacon’s imagination at its highest pitch. While living and working in Paris, Bacon produced one of his most powerful paintings on the subject and a masterpiece within his oeuvre. In Triptych, 1976, Bacon draws on Ancient Greek mythology to express his personal tragedy. The present work reveals in a single composition the entire range of Bacon’s iconography over three decades of painting, centering on the tortured figure of Prometheus, the bringer of fire to mankind and the subject of Aeschylus’ play Prometheus Bound. As punishment for this act, the gods chained Prometheus to a rock where his perpetually regenerating liver is constantly gnawed by a bird of prey. The work was being offered from a Private European Collection. For Bacon sales history, please see the Note at the end of release.

The first offering of Property from the Collection of Helga and Walther Lauffs, one of the most extraordinary single-owner offerings of Contemporary Art to ever appear on the market, brought $96,105,000 (est. $47.1/65.2 million); further lots will be offered in tomorrow’s Day sale and in London later this year in sales of Contemporary Art and Prints**. The offering featured works by major artists ranging from Joseph Beuys, Yves Klein and Piero Manzoni, to Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Tom Wesselmann and Robert Rauschenberg, and comprises important representatives of Minimalism, Pop art, New Realism, Conceptual art and Arte Povera. Highlighting the offering were two works by Yves Klein, which twice broke the record for the artist, with his sumptuous gold Monochrome, MG 9, circa 1962, which brought $23,561,000, a record for the artist at auction (lot 13, est. $6/8 million), and his 1960 ultramarine masterpiece acquired in 1968, IKB 1, among the Lauffs’ first purchases, which achieved $17,401,000 (lot 14, est. $5/7 million). Records were also set for Tom Wesselmann, (Great American Nude no. 48), 1963, which achieved $10,681,000 (lot 50, est. $6/8 million) and Piero Manzoni’s Achrome, 1958, which realized $10,121,000 (lot 16, est. $4.5/6.5 million), as well as for works by Carl Andre and Joseph Beuys. Andy Warhol’s Set of Four Boxes: Brillo Box, Campbell’s Tomato Juice Box, Del Monte Peach Halves Box, Heinz Tomato Ketchup Box, created in 1961, set a record for a sculpture by the artist, selling for $4,745,000 (lot 31, est. $2/3 million) after extended bidding with interest by at least four bidders.

Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild, 1990, a colorful abstract work from the Collection of Edwin C. Cohen and Victoria Shaw (lot 23, est. $5/7 million), which had interest from at least five bidders, sold for $15,161,000 to a client on the telephone.

The May sale featured the most important work by Murakami ever offered at auction, My Lonesome Cowboy, 1998, which commanded $15,161,000 (lot 9, est. $3/4 million). One of the key pieces of sculpture from the past twenty-five years, the work is from an edition of three with two artist’s proofs from the provocative series depicting a manga-inspired Japanese young man with a shock of yellow hair ejaculating in a lasso-like form, symbolizing artistic energy and reminiscent of the waves depicted in the work of famed Japanese print artist, Katsushika Hokusai. The figurative, life-size sculpture, made of oil, acrylic, fiberglass and iron, shows the unashamed subject in a high moment of ecstasy, opening up a dialogue about the freedom of creativity and sexuality that challenges the confines of Western morality. The present My Lonesome Cowboy, the first to appear at auction, was previously exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. Other editions have been on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and at the “© Murakami” exhibition which began at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and is currently at the Brooklyn Museum before continuing on to the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

Another highlight of the May sale was Robert Rauschenberg’s colored silkscreen painting, Overdrive, 1963, which achieved $14,601,000 (lot 27, est. $10/15 million). Beginning with his legendary Combine Paintings of the late 1950s, which incorporated found objects and expressionistic paint handling, Rauschenberg’s early works embraced the unseen detritus of the contemporary experience, transferring the material world into his art through a seemingly endless stream of restless experimentation. In the case of this work, the sights and sounds of New York City are conveyed in shifting images of street signs, stop signs, the Statue of Liberty and the birds of the cityscape.

A work by Subodh Gupta, one of the most important Contemporary artists to emerge from India in a generation, Saat Samunder Paar VII, 2003, achieved $825,000, a record for the artist at auction (lot 71, est. $500/700,000). The work comes from a series the artist completed in 2003 entitled Saat samundar paar, or “Across the Seven Seas”. In these works, Subodh depicts scenes from bustling airports, thereby tapping into a theme central to his entire oeuvre: man’s experience in contemporary society.

Note: Sotheby’s set the previous record for a work by Francis Bacon at auction when Study for Innocent X, 1962, sold in New York for $52.7 million. Sotheby’s also holds five of the top six prices for Bacon: in addition to Study for Innocent X, significant prices were achieved for Second Version of Study for Bullfight No. 1, 1969 ($45.96 million at Sotheby’s New York); Self Portrait, 1978 ($42.6 million at Sotheby’s London); Study of Nude with Figure in a Mirror, 1969 ($39.8 million at Sotheby’s New York); and Nude with Figure in a Mirror (Study), 1969 ($38.8 million at Sotheby’s London).

*Estimates do not include buyer’s premium

**Details about the London offering will be provided later this season