Hockney replaces Koons as the most expensive living American artist

A painting painted by the British painter David Hockney on the pool set a record price for a piece of art living at $ 90 million (just under 80 million euros) at one time. auction in New York. The painting "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Characters)" was auctioned overnight until today for exactly $ 90.3 million, the auction house said Christie 's to the buyer wants to first anonymous, acrylic painting created in 1972 shows two men – one of them swimming in the pool, the other one standing by the pool.

Hockney, 81, replaces Jeff Koons, 63, as the most expensive living artist. The American Koons had broken the record in 2013 with his sculpture "Balloon Dog", which had also been auctioned at Christie's in New York for $ 58.4 million (then $ 43.6 million). # 39; euros).

Disk also outside the house

At the auction in New York, a snow record was set in front of the auction house: about 16 centimeters fell – no other measurements were measured in November for at least 136 years.

Nevertheless, dozens of people gathered at the auction house, including gallerist Larry Gagosian and actor Jake Gyllenhaal. Many people offered Hockney's photo, after all, two phone companies competed for nine minutes. The seller of this image would be according to US media to British billionaire Joe Lewis. Christie's did not want to confirm that at first.

The sale at Hockney was the highlight of this year's fall auction, but even before that, demand and prices were high and many records had been set. "Abstract Picture", a work by German artist Gerhard Richter of 1987, was auctioned at Sotheby's for about 32 million dollars (about 28 million euros). A painting by American artist Edward Hopper (1882-1967) – "Chop Suey" – sets a new auction record for the artist at Christie's with about $ 92 million. Previously, Sotheby's had auctioned a work of Belgian painter René Magritte (1898-1967) for about 26.8 million dollars – a record also for the artist.