|
 Richter's "Wand (Wall)", painted in 1994, has been shown in
20 museum exhibitions, including the Richter retrospective
"Forty Years of Painting" at the Museum of Modern Art in New
York, but it has never before been offered for sale by the
artist, the auction house said.
The oil painting, whose price is expected to exceed 15 million
pounds ($25 million), features "bold bands of cadmium red, blue
and magenta", showcasing the revolutionary technique Richter
developed in the previous decade.
Another high-profile newcomer onto the art market will be the
1961 painting "Head on a Green Sofa" by German-born British
artist Lucian Freud, which depicts his longtime companion
Belinda "Bindy" Lambton.
In the portrait, the price of which is estimated at between 2.5
and 3.5 million pounds, Bindy appears to be nude, and her
famously angular face is shown leaning on the arm of a green
sofa, "beautifully expressive and almost sculptural in form".
"Excitement is always high around fresh-to-the-market,
museum-quality works, and our February sales have plenty to
offer collectors in this respect," said Alex Branczik, the head
of Sotheby's London Contemporary Art Department.
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 Sotheby's staged the biggest auction in its history in New York
late last year, which brought in $380.6 million from sales of
post-war and contemporary art.
"The exceptional results for contemporary sales last
year reflect the continuing growth in interest in the field,"
Branczik said.
Andy Warhol's "Mao", (1973), part of the Mao series
he painted just after U.S. President Richard Nixon's visit to China
in 1972, will also be on sale at the London auction on February 12.
It is estimated to be worth between 5.5 and 7.5 million pounds.
Another estimated six-figure painting is "Untitled (Rome)", (1964),
by U.S. artist Cy Twombly. Inspired by his move to the Italian
capital, the large-scale painting has never before been exhibited
publicly. Sotheby's is hoping to sell it for 5 billion to 7 million
pounds.
The art market has been riding high recently, thanks to easy money
from the world's central banks and a growing class of super-rich
collectors from emerging markets such as China, Russia and the
Middle East.
(Reporting by Julia Fioretti; editing by
Michael Roddy and Larry King)
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