A total of eleven lithographs by the Spanish surrealist Salvador Dali (1904-1989), which had been stored in a London garage and forgotten for 50 years, sparked excitement on Monday at auction in London.
The lithographs, which were found while the seller was cleaning out his garage in the British capital’s upmarket Mayfair, were purchased in the 1970s for £500 at an art gallery closing sale .
Chris Kirkham, associate director of the Hansons Richmond auction house, told AFP that each lot had been sold for a price above its base estimate of 500 to 700 pounds (between 601 and 841 euros). .
The most sought-after lot – a colored lithograph with nude figures, a limited edition signed by the artist himself – went for 4,900 pounds (or 5,889 euros).
Prices much lower than other sales of Dali’s works. In 2011, the “Portrait of Paul Eluard”, dating from 1929, was sold for the astronomical sum of 13.5 million pounds (or more than 16 million euros) at Sotheby’s in London.
But Mr Kirkham said the sale at Hansons Richmond had attracted global interest, with “exceptional” demand.
These lithographs “kind of check a lot of boxes. You have a weighty artist who has lasting appeal. They’re vibrant and colorful, which makes them commercial, and I think they’ll probably be suitable for any home” , he comments.
“They’re nice and big, they’re decorative, so they have a nice mix of things,” he continues.
Furthermore, the sale is an example of how online auctions have enabled a greater number of private buyers to acquire works of art at competitive prices, he noted.
“We have a lady who bought three today. She saw them in the press and she wants them for her house, on a wall, which is very good, because ten years ago, these kinds of sales were intended for professionals who only sought to resell the objects acquired.
This article was automatically published. Sources: ats / afp
