Pauline Karpidas: The London Collection

 London, 17 September 2025

Last night’s Karpidas evening sale at Sotheby’s was an uplifting success for the London market and a lesson in the importance of choreography. The mise en scène of the viewing, and the collection’s richly illustrated catalogue, helped to inspire a new generation of buyers who completely understood the style and panache of Pauline Karpidas from the way her collection was presented. Every buyer was taken on a very clear journey - from the announcement of the sale, to the moment the gavel dropped.

Estimates were set at conservative levels, allowing auctioneer Oliver Barker to open bidding at prices which encouraged competition largely from private collectors. Reflecting on the sale, Barker commented, “the fact that this collection came from a known and beloved taste maker with the most discerning eye really made the difference. People loved immersing themselves in Pauline’s world and taking something home”. My guess is that fewer works last night were bought by dealers for stock, with prices generally up at ‘retail’ levels (with a few notable exceptions).

The sale’s predominantly positive results are buoyed by the continuing fervour for work by Les Lalanne, with some examples selling for up to 10 times their admittedly restrained estimates. Several other areas continue to be competitive, especially works by female artists such as Tanning and Carrington, and less renowned Surrealist artists such as Dominguez, Brauner and Bellmer. These healthy results are partially driven by the excellent suite of Surrealism curated by Pauline. Anyone with a strong interest in the movement has scoured this sale, which was rich with works with the finest collector provenances of Paul Éluard, Edward James and others in the inner Surrealist circle.

Even in a sale as successful as this, there were opportunities for the beady-eyed. The early Giorgio de Chirico was perhaps slightly overlooked, the Picasso works on paper underperformed a little, and Lot 27, Warhol’s Madonna and Self-Portrait with Skeleton’s Arm (After Munch), was arguably the purchase of the sale.

Back in 2009 after the Credit Crisis, the Yves St Laurent Sale at Christie’s in Paris jump-started an ailing art market. Last night’s Karpidas Sale promises to be the highest single-owner auction held in Europe since the Yves St Laurent Collection, and could be a similar positive indicator for the market. We are, after all, approaching November in New York, the most important month in the global auction calendar, hot on the heels of an October brimming with sales and events in London and Paris.

Jussi Pylkkänen

Art Pylkkänen

London

18 September 2025