Contemporary Art

The Contemporary Art Department at Sotheby's focuses on a diverse range of artists and schools from early Abstract Expressionism through today. Our sales typically include fine paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures and installations from nearly every notable Contemporary movement of the post-war 20th-and 21st-centuries.

Sotheby's Contemporary Art Department is currently the undisputed leader in the category, consistently achieving record results and setting the gold standard for market performance. Sotheby's has achieved the top price for a work of post-war art with the sale of Francis Bacon's Triptych, 1976 ($86.3 million), the top price for a work by a female living artist with the sale of Marlene Dumas' The Visitor ($6.3 million), the top price for a Contemporary photograph with the sale of Richard Prince's Untitled (Cowboy) ($3.4 million) and the top price for a post-war work on paper with the sale of Jasper Johns' 0 Through 9 ($10.9 million). Sotheby's also holds the artist record for Mark Rothko, whose White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose) brought $72.8 million, and has achieved the highest price of the season in five of the past seven seasons.

The most important post-war collections to come to market in recent memory have been entrusted to Sotheby's. Our sales of Property from the Estate of Mary Schiller Myers and Louis S. Myers (November 2009) and most recently, Property from the Sammlung Lenz Schönberg (February 2010) each set numerous record prices and achieved totals well above pre-sale estimates. Other recent sales, including Damien Hirst's Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, Property from the Collection of Helga and Walther Lauffs and Property from the Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection, reflect Sotheby's incomparable personal relationships with the world's most respected collectors, dealers, curators, artists and businesses.

Major sales of Contemporary Art are held in New York in May and November, and in London in February and June. Additionally, auctions are held throughout the year at our Paris and Milan venues. Before these auctions, we travel our property across the globe, including London and Moscow. Please check back here for updated travelling exhibition dates.