Laurence Graff's charity auction raises money for F.A.C.E.T. and kicks off Frieze week
Thursday, October 29, 2009 at 10:00AM London, October 2009 – Laurence Graff raised $1.2m (£767,180) on Monday 12th October from the sale of 26 lots donated by some of the most important contemporary artists of our time.
Amongst the pieces was Raqib Shaw’s ‘The Mild-Eyed Melanchony of the Lotus Eater’ a piece of work that heralds the beginning of a new body of paintings, works on paper and sculptures and the new period in the artist's oeuvre. There is only one other work on paper from the series that was on display at Frieze and there will be no other works released for sale until the 2011 opening.
The show’s title piece was ‘African Girl ‘Injabulo’ (which in Zulu means ‘Happiness’) by the South African artist Lionel Smit, the hammer price of £26,000 was over 4 times the lower estimate.
Other highlights of the event were the records set for the Deborah Bell and the Christoph Schellberg. The Raqib Shaw went for £200,000 – a record for his work on paper at auction.
Damien Hirst’s painting of the Porter Rhodes diamond went for £100,000 which Laurence Graff bought for the company, the original diamond was bought and repolished into a 54.04ct stone by Graff in 1987.
Further artists who contributed to the auction were Tracey Emin, Jeff Koons, David LaChapelle, Dennis Hopper, Ed Ruscha and Marc Quinn.
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