Bidders were left hot under the collar in London this week as Sotheby’s inaugural Erotic sale brought a total of £5,297,000, exceeding the combined pre-sale estimate of £3.1–4.6 million. Featuring over 100 lots of fine art, photography, sculpture and design, the auction saw almost half of the works sold achieve prices above the high estimate.The sale was led by two sculptural masterpieces - Jacques Loysel’s La Grande Névrose and a rare surviving work by Sarah Bernhardt, both of which established auction records.
AUCTION DETAILS
Across the centuries, art has always been intrinsically linked to expressions of passion and sensuality. ‘Erotic: Passion & Desire’ will encompass representations of love and sex from antiquity to the present day, exploring themes from the beauty of desire to representations of the nude, to the carnal act itself, stripped of metaphor. Featuring over 100 extraordinary works comprising 19th-century furniture, design, fine art, books, prints, photography and contemporary sculpture, the exhibition will open at Sotheby’s New Bond Street Galleries on 11 February 2017 ahead of the auction on 16 February 2017.
WARNING Please be advised that this sale includes images of nudity and images of a sexual nature which some viewers may consider indecent.
