$28.5 million painting smashes David Hockney auction record in New York

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Miranda Bryant17 May 2018

Two paintings by David Hockney have sold for a total of over $40 million (£29.6 million) at auction — smashing his previous record twice in one night.

Pacific Coast Highway And Santa Monica, and Piscine de Medianoche (Paper Pool 30), fetched $28,453,000 (£21.04 million) and $11,743,800 (£8.7 million) respectively at Sotheby’s New York last night.

The previous record for a work by the British artist was set in 2016, when Woldgate Woods sold for $11.7 million (£8.6 million). Pacific Coast Highway And Santa Monica — a view from Hockney’s home in the Hollywood Hills painted in 1990 — was in the 80-year-old’s recent blockbuster retrospective at Tate Britain.

The bidding for it started at $16 million and auctioneer Oliver Barker was applauded when it was sold by phone to an unidentified Asian buyer. Piscine de Medianoche, created in 1978, shows a swimming pool at night.

​Grégoire Billault, senior vice president and head of contemporary art at Sotheby’s New York, said “this is just the beginning” for Hockney’s sales value. “He has always been in demand but I think for the first time in a long long time, thanks to the retrospective, people realised he was not only a great painter, but really one of the very best.

“Not only his early works but also his late works are as relevant as ever.”

Records were also set for British artist Cecily Brown and American Kerry James Marshall. Works by Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat featured as well.

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