$8.5 million Arshile Gorky painting leads Frieze London and Frieze Masters 2024 opening sales.

Today, the 2024 editions of Frieze London and Frieze Masters kicked off at Regent’s Park. At the conclusion of the fairs’ preview day, an $8.5 million Arshile Gorky painting, sold by Hauser & Wirth at Frieze Masters, led the reported sales. At Frieze London, David Zwirner led VIP day with the sale of a painting by Lisa Yuskavage for $2.2 million. The coinciding fairs will both run through October 13th.

This year, Frieze London hosts more than 160 galleries from 43 countries, while Frieze Masters features more than 130 galleries from 26 countries. Notable VIP attendees included actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Bill Murray, artists Tracey Emin and Raf Simons, musician FKA twigs, and leading art world figures, including curator Hans Ulrich Obrist and collectors Jason and Michelle Rubell.

Across both fairs, blue-chip galleries reported several seven- and six-figure sales. Here, we round up the reported sales during the VIP day of the 12th edition of Frieze Masters and the 21st edition of Frieze London. Check back on Monday for the full sales report.

Top sales at Frieze London and Frieze Masters

Hauser & Wirth had the day’s headlining sale with Gorky’s The Opaque (1947), featured in its group exhibition at Frieze Masters. Meanwhile, the gallery reported selling five Charles Gaines works for $175,000–$195,000 at its Frieze London solo booth. Other sales at Frieze Masters reported by Hauser & Wirth included:

• An Édouard Manet painting sold for €4.5 million ($4.9 million).
• Francis Picabia’s Elle danse (She Dances) (1948) sold for $4 million.
• William Kentridge’s Drawing for Self-Portrait as a Coffee Pot (Still Life with Black Jug I) (2020) sold for $650,000.
• Lee Lozano’s No title (1962) sold for $550,000.
• Lucio Fontana’s Concetto spaziale, Attesa (1962–63) sold for €520,000 ($568,000).
• Fausto Melotti’s Il fulmine (The Flash) (1969) sold for €270,000 ($295,000).
• Gerhard Richter’s 23.5.08 (2008) sold for CHF 145,000 ($168,000).
• Eugène Carrière’s Étude, fillette endormie (ca. 1897) sold for CHF 58,000 ($67,000)
• Méret Oppenheim’s Eichhörnchen (Squirrel) (1970) sold for CHF 42,000 ($48,700).

David Zwirner led sales at Frieze London with a painting by Lisa Yuskavage for $2.2 million. Other reported sales included:

• Two paintings by Yayoi Kusama sold for $670,000 and $720,000.
• A painting by Steven Shearer sold for $450,000, and four drawings by the artist sold for $25,000–$40,000.
• A new painting by Sasha Gordon sold for $120,000, following the gallery’s announcement of its representation of the artist.
• A sculpture by Rose Wylie sold for $120,000.
• Four new paintings by Walter Price each sold in the range of $28,000–$75,000.

Kukje Gallery’s first-day Frieze London sales include five Ha Chong-Hyun pieces in the range of $540,000–$649,000, and another mixed-media piece for between $253,000–$303,600. Other reported sales include:

• Several Haegue Yang mixed-media works sold: one for between €105,000–€126,000 ($114,800–$137,000), one for between €75,000–€90,000 ($82,000–$98,400), one for between €32,000–€38,400 ($35,000–$42,000), and one for ₩ 3.8 million ($2,800).
• A Jae-Eun Choi 16-piece wood panel work sold in the range of $46,000–$55,200.
• Two Kibong Rhee pieces sold for between $70,000–$84,000 and $60,000–$72,000, respectively.

At Frieze London, White Cube’s reported sales were led by an Al Held painting, which sold for $450,000. Other reported sales include:

• Four Tracey Emin bronze works sold for £80,000 ($104,560) each, along with two additional pieces for £90,000 ($117,600) and £120,000 ($156,800), respectively.
• A Tiona Nekkia McClodden work sold for $75,000.
• A Robert Mapplethorpe photograph sold for $17,500.
• An Alia Ahmad sold for $85,000.
• A Marguerite Humeau bronze sold for £75,000 ($98,025), and a work on paper by the artist sold for £25,000 ($32,600).
• A Salvatore Emblema sold for €54,000 ($59,000).
• A Marina Rheingantz sold for $80,000.
• A Tarwuk sold for $70,000.
• An Imi Knoebel work sold for €65,000 ($71,100).
• A Sara Flores handmade wild cotton work sold for $30,000.

Pace Gallery reported that its leading sale at Frieze London was David Hockney’s 25th July–7th August 2021, Rain on the Pond (2021), omitting the price. Other sales from Pace include:

• An Alicja Kwade work sold for $500,000.
• Two works by Emily Kame Kngwarreye sold for $150,000 each.
• Eight works by Nathalie Du Pasquie sold at Frieze Masters for prices ranging from €40,000–€60,000 ($43,700–$65,630).

Other sales at Frieze London and Frieze Masters

• By the end of VIP day, Gagosian reported selling most of its booth of sculptures by Carol Bove.
• Lehmann Maupin sold 11 paintings by British artist Billy Childish, with prices ranging from $50,000 to $100,000. At Frieze Masters, the gallery placed several works by Kim Yun Shin for undisclosed prices.
• Sprüth Magers’s reported sales include a painting by Anne Imhof for €200,000 ($217,800), a work by Joseph Kosuth for €125,000 ($136,700), a Thea Djordjadze piece for €50,000 ($54,690), a Mire Lee work for €40,000 ($43,750), a Louise Lawler print for $40,000, and an Oliver Bak painting for €35,000 ($38,300).
• Thaddaeus Ropac’s VIP Day sales include a Joan Snyder work for $200,000; an Elizabeth Peyton work for $225,000; a Robert Longo ink-and-charcoal work for $90,000; two Megan Rooney works, one for £75,000 ($98,000) and one for £18,000 ($23,500); two Zadie Xa paintings, which each sold for £60,000 ($78,400); and two Martha Jungwirth oil paintings, one for €65,000 ($71,100) and the other for €60,000 ($65,630).
• Lisson Gallery closed out VIP day having sold Leiko Ikemura’s Usagi Kannon Pray (168) (2022) for €168,000 ($138,700). Other works by Ikemura that were sold include Evidence (2024), for €115,000 ($125,800); Yellow Scape (2020), for €108,000 ($118,000); and Lago Rondo (2020) and B-bay (2020), for €108,000 ($118,000) each.