Stories

If you had told anyone six months ago that a painting by Lynne Drexler would be offered at auction in Los Angeles with a low estimate of $500,000, the response would have been laughter. But this week Bonhams announced it would be offering Grass Symphony from 1962 at its Los Angeles sale on September 14th with a $500,000 low estimate.

If you thought the Ernie Barnes wave had run its course, last week gave you a big surprise. During Christie's London sale, Main Street Pool Hall from 1978 made $1.8 million against an estimate under $100,000. That was the third highest price paid for a Barnes painting after the $15 million record Sugar Shack from 1976 and the $2.34 million paid for Storm Dance from 1977. Both of those sales took place in early May.

Barely two years out of the Royal Academy schools and after a show at Thaddaeus Ropac in London that closed in February, Rachel Jones has had two major sales bookending March. At the beginning of the month, her work opened Sotheby’s London The Now sale on March 2nd soaring to $840,000. At the end of the month, a 2019 p