Sotheby’s Amplifies October Auctions in Europe With State-of-the-Art Live-Stream Format Expanded to Paris For the First Time

Sotheby’s Amplifies October Auctions in Europe
With State-of-the-Art Live-Stream Format Expanded to Paris For the First Time

Auctions to be Live-Streamed Consecutively in Paris and London on 21 October

“Paris and London have long reigned as major European hubs for artistic creativity and innovation, just as they continue to be central to the art market. This year, as the art world community is not able to congregate in these cities physically, we are uniting the audiences by expanding the livestream model that we pioneered over the summer months in New York and London.”
Helena Newman, Sotheby’s Chairman for Europe & Auctioneer for Modernités

“In the wake of a record year for Sotheby’s in France, we are excited to harness the global reach of a live-streamed auction and bring the innovative format across La Manche. Not bound by physical location, we were freed up to think across the region, and the pairing of these two sales made perfect sense as a cohesive and fresh offering to our clients.”
Mario Tavella, Président-directeur-général of Sotheby’s France & Chairman for Europe

LONDON / PARIS, 16 September – Next month, Sotheby’s is set to enhance and develop the livestream auction model pioneered by the company in this summer’s marquee sales in New York and London1, by introducing the state-of-the-art format to Paris for the first time and bringing together two sales of Modern and Contemporary art from the global calendar.
This autumn, art lovers will once again have the opportunity to converge virtually for another livestreamed auction event: “Modernités / Contemporary” – two sales held in sequence that will together present defining moments of the 20th and 21st centuries through artworks by the greatest artists working in Europe and beyond.
1 Sotheby’s revolutionary livestream auction first debuted on 29 June, with the New York Marquee Evening Sales led by auctioneer Oliver Barker. The evening, which totalled $363 million and established 14 new auction records, attracted five times Sotheby’s average online viewership. On 28 July, 150,000 viewers tuned in live from across the world to witness our second iteration of the livestream format sale ‘Rembrandt to Richter’, a brand-new crosscategory auction held from London.
The evening will open with Sotheby’s European Chairman Helena Newman taking to the rostrum in the London ‘control centre’ studio for the Paris auction “Modernités”, fielding bids in French and English live from colleagues in London, Paris, New York and Asia.
This will then be followed, after a short break, with Sotheby’s annual autumn Contemporary Art Evening auction led by European Chairman Oliver Barker. Both segments of the auction will livestreamed, enhanced with dynamic and informative on-screen visuals for each of the works offered.
Among the highlights in the London Contemporary Art Evening Sale is a seminal black and white painting by Bridget Riley (est. £5.5-7.5 million / $7-9.6 million), showcasing one of the leading abstract painters at the height of her powers. A hypnotic work from the early 1960s, Riley takes simple, geometric forms to create an instant sensation of flux and movement of dizzying proportion. When last offered at auction at Sotheby’s in 2006, the painting established a record price for the artist that still stands. The work has since been exhibited as part of the artist’s landmark retrospective at the Hayward Gallery in London.
In Paris, Modernités – a sale that spans from 1900 and the birth of the avant-garde, modernist movement to the post-war period – explores the common threads between the artists who forged a distinct path over the century, among them Pierre Soulages, Francis Picabia and Wassily Kandinsky.
Taking centre stage will be a connoisseurial private collection of twenty-five fresh-to-the-market works, comprising intimate gems from the Blaue Reiter in Germany to Surrealism in Paris, and an overall value in excess of €10 million / $12 million (separate release on ‘Un Regard Moderne’ available on request). Among the rediscoveries from the collection is a powerful wartime work on paper by Pablo Picasso, a rare male portrait from the 1940s when the artist was living in the seaside town of Royan with his lover Dora Maar. It is now set to make its auction debut.
The exhibitions for the two sales will be open to the public in our New Bond Street and Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré galleries respectively, with Modernités on view in Paris from 17-21 October and the Contemporary Art Evening Sale in London from 16-21 October. Please refer to the website for exact opening times each day.
High-resolution images available to download here. Further highlights to be announced in due course.

LIVE STREAM AUCTION GUIDE

• The auctioneers for both sales will take to the rostrum at Sotheby’s London.
• However, instead of standing in front of a busy room of collectors, the auctioneer will be
looking at colleagues on phone banks in Sotheby’s salesrooms around the world – in this case
in Paris, New York, Hong Kong and London – who will be streamed onto high definition
screens.
• A further screen in front of the auctioneer will show bids placed by collectors who are
participating online.
• In turn, the Sotheby’s phone bidders across the world will see the auctioneer streamed into
their respective rooms live, allowing for real-time bidding battles.
• The entire sale will be streamed online via Sothebys.com and via Sotheby’s Facebook page.
• Details on in-room bidding will be decided closer to the time, pending government guidelines.

AUCTION CALENDAR
Modernités
21 October, Paris
Contemporary Art Evening Auction
21 October, London
Contemporary Art Day Sale
15-22 October, London
Contemporary Art
23-29 October, Paris

da Wanda Rotelli Tarpino
Ufficio Stampa Sotheby’s