What Sold at Frieze London and Frieze Masters 2022

From October 12th through 16th, the tents at Regent’s Park thrummed with excitement as visitors to Frieze London and Frieze Masters enjoyed the spectacular booths of the much-anticipated art fair. Collectors, curators, and art enthusiasts alike were spellbound at the rich displays of global talent on view—most of which were snapped up within the opening hours of the fair on Wednesday. Celebrity attendees included Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice, tennis star Maria Sharapova, former chancellor Rishi Sunak, actor Jared Leto, and Taiwanese singer Jay Chou, among others.

“What truly matters is that amongst everything, the creative spirit of London remains untouched,” said Eva Langret, artistic director of Frieze London. “It’s a moment for us to get together and rally in support for the wider creative community in London. If we’ve learned one thing, it’s that the art market is resilient, so we have a lot of confidence this year.”

Langret’s instincts were spot on: A weak pound sterling coupled with strong international interest created favorable market conditions for eye-popping sales, many of which are detailed below.

Rachel Lehmann, co-founder of Lehmann Maupin, pointed to the ongoing strength of the British art market despite a strong dollar, which she says hasn’t deterred sales in the U.K. and Europe. “I am thrilled to see placements with an international group of buyers, including at least four who made their first acquisitions with the gallery,” she said. “We’ve placed important works with collectors in Greece, France, and the U.K.”

While long lines and high foot traffic at the VIP opening left some high-profile visitors and eager collectors in a huff, deals were inked within the first hour of Frieze’s opening. Prominent Swiss auctioneer and art dealer Simon de Pury noted “brisk buying activity” at both fairs, citing the Helly Nahmad booth at Frieze Masters of works on paper and painted textiles by Joan Miró as a “knock-out show of triple-A works.”

Read on to discover the fair’s top sales, notable institutional placements, new discoveries, and more.

Five major sales

• Johnny Van Haeften sold a rare Jan Brueghel the Elder work for approximately $10 million to a collector who was new to the gallery.
• David Zwirner sold a painting by Kerry James Marshall for $6 million to a major U.S. museum.
• Hauser & Wirth sold an abstract Philip Guston painting for $4.8 million at Frieze Masters.
• Goodman Gallery sold a piece by Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui for $2.5 million.
• Thaddaeus Ropac sold a metal painting by Robert Rauschenberg for $1.8 million.

Other heavyweight sales from the fair include a Luc Tuymans painting sold by David Zwirner for $2 million to a major U.S. collection, and a Serge Poliakoff painting, Rouge bleu jaune (1954), sold by Waddington Custot for £1.5 million (about $1.7 million) to an existing European client at Frieze Masters. The latter work had previously set Poliakoff’s auction record in Asia in 2018 when it sold at Christie’s Shanghai for over $1.1 million.

Other notable six- and seven-figure sales include:

• Sprüth Magers sold a George Condo painting for $1.55 million.
• Thaddaeus Ropac sold Georg Baselitz’s Vedova accendi la luce (2020) for €1.35 million (approximately $1.32 million).
• Hauser & Wirth sold a Hans Arp oil piece for $1.2 million.
• Xavier Hufkens sold a painting by Tracey Emin in the range of £950,000 (approximately $1.08 million).
• Gallery Wendi Norris sold an oil painting by Dorothea Tanning for $950,000 to a private museum affiliated collection in Europe.
• David Aaron sold a Camptosaurus skeleton from the late Jurassic period for £1 million (approximately $1.14 million).

Frieze debuts and discoveries

At Frieze London:

• GRIMM showed paintings by recently signed British artist Francesca Mollett, who made her debut at Frieze; the gallery sold two of her works to institutions in the U.S. and Asia, for $21,000 and $23,000. The gallery also sold a new oil-on-linen painting Ceiling Rose (2022) by rising Scottish artist Gabriella Boyd for $22,500, though the gallerists commented that with the interest they received, it “could’ve sold a hundred times.”
• London-based gallery The Approach, known for discovering artists and establishing them early in their careers, sold the majority of its booth and works from the back room priced from £5,000–£80,000 (approximately $5,700–$91,200). It sold works by late British painter Jeffery Camp, marking a successful debut of his works at Frieze. Other works by Bill Lynch and Pam Evelyn sold to private museums.
• L.A.’s Night Gallery sold work by every artist in its booth, for prices between $15,000–$65,000. The gallery sold all of its works by Winnipeg-based painter Wanda Koop, who made her Frieze debut last week.

• Ryan Lee marked its Frieze debut with a solo exhibition titled “Self Portraits” of paintings by Emma Amos—also the first showing of the late artist’s work at Frieze. Works sold to private collectors, a U.K. museum, and a family foundation.
• Among Project 88’s works on view, conceptual and performance artist Amol Patil’s sculptures and mixed-media drawings were a hit with institutions: all six of his works sold, and his trio of drawings were acquired by the Frieze Tate Fund. Works at the booth sold for prices from £3,000–£15,000 (approximately $3,400–$17,100).
• Kadel Willborn sold all five works on offer by Heidi Hahn on her Frieze debut, priced from $40,000–$55,000 each, to private collectors and international institutions.

At Frieze Masters:

• David Aaron sold an inlaid gold torque from circa the 1st to 2nd centuries for £265,000 (about $302,400) to private collectors.
• Bastian sold two works by Andy Warhol for €260,000 (about $255,000) each.
• Ab-Anbar sold multiple collage works by Iranian artist Sonia Balassanian, priced at $35,000 each, to museums, private collectors, and institutions.
• Stephen Ongpin Fine Art sold work by painter Claudio Bravo for £150,000 (about $171,100), and work by Wilhelm Friedrich Frey for around £11,000 (about $12,550).

Institutional placements

• The Frieze Tate Fund enabled the acquisition of several works, including Lewis Hammond’s The Link / Ivy May Forever (2022) from Arcadia Missa; a drawing by Sandra Vásquez de la Horra from Sprovieri; three Amol Patil mixed-media drawings from Project 88; a Frida Orupabo collage from Stevenson; a Rita Keegan painting from Thomas Dane Gallery; and a watercolor by Leonor Fini from Paris gallery Loeve&Co.
• White Cube sold eight prints by Ibrahim Mahama at €12,500 ($12,285) each to the Contemporary Art Society’s Collections Fund at Frieze, which will see the photographs enter the Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery’s collection.
• GRIMM sold a new painting by Daniel Richter for €340,000 (about $334,000) to a foundation, and placed one Francesca Mollett painting with a museum in Asia.

• Addis Fine Art sold a work by Selome Muleta, Interior Dialogue IX (2022), to a prominent U.S. museum, in the range of £10,000–£25,000 (about $11,400–$28,500).
• Ryan Lee sold works from its solo booth of works by Emma Amos to a U.K. museum and a family foundation.
• At Frieze Masters, Elliott Fine Art was likely to place a Lilly Steiner gouache-on-paper work at a U.S. institution for £25,000 (about $28,500).
• Jack Shainman Gallery sold a Rose B. Simpson sculpture to a U.S. institution.
• Ben Brown Fine Arts sold two works to a museum, among other sales.

Sold-out booths

• Gagosian’s solo presentation of new paintings by Jadé Fadojutimi sold out in the early hours of the fair.
• Casey Kaplan sold out its solo booth of Cindy Ji Hye Kim’s graphite-on-silk works, each for $38,000, on the VIP day, with some works pre-sold before the fair’s opening.
• Tiwani Contemporary sold out its two-person presentation in the Focus section within the first hour of the fair to corporate collections and individual collectors. This included works by L.A.-based artist Umar Rashid that sold for $75,000 and $45,000; and British artist Joy Labinjo’s paintings sold each for £50,000 (about $57,100).

• Almine Rech sold out its solo booth of works by Alexandre Lenoir within the first hours of the fair on Wednesday, to institutions and private collectors in Europe, the U.S., and Asia.
• London-based contemporary gallery Corvi-Mora sold out its booth on Friday, which included works by Jem Perucchini, among several other artists. The booth’s prices ranged from $3,000 for ceramics to $700,000 for more larger works.

More noteworthy sales

• By the end of the fair’s VIP day, Hauser & Wirth placed 18 works in collections in Europe, the U.K., Asia, and the U.S. Notable sales include a Dieter Roth painting for €450,000 (about $443,100); a ​Maria Lassnig oil painting for $575,000; and a ​Luchita Hurtado work for $90,000.
• Among several sales, Pace Gallery sold a Mary Corse mixed-media work for $550,000; a Lee Kun-yong painting for $360,000 to a collection in Paris; and works by Gideon Appah (who recently joined the gallery’s roster), Keith Coventry, and Robert Longo.
• White Cube sold two paintings by Georg Baselitz for €650,000 (about $639,700) each; two sculptures by Antony Gormley for £500,000 and £450,000 (about $571,300 and $514,200, respectively); a Tunji Adeniyi-Jones painting for $80,000; and seven works by Tracey Emin at £50,000 (about $57,100) each, among others.

• Stephen Friedman Gallery sold three sculptures and four paintings by Jeffrey Gibson to private collectors and foundations in the range of $135,000–$300,000.
• GRIMM nearly sold out its booth, with more than a dozen works placed ranging from £6,500 to €340,000 (about $7,300 to $334,700), including two new paintings by Louise Giovanelli that sold for £20,000–£35,000 (about $22,700–$39,800) each.
• Sean Kelly Gallery sold a painting by German artist Janaina Tschäpe for $140,000 to a European private collector, two Sam Moyer works for $50,000 each, and a collage by Wu Chi-Tsung for $30,000, among several other sales.
• Kukje Gallery sold a Yoo Youngkuk oil painting for $320,000–$360,000 and a Ha Chong-hyun oil-on-hemp cloth work for $225,000–$250,000, among several other sales.
• Grosvenor Gallery sold multiple works by Rasheed Araeen for £15,000–£25,000 (about $17,000–$28,400).

• Brussels-based dépendance sold several works, including two paintings by Thilo Heinzmann—one to a U.K.–based collector and one to a Milan-based collector—for €37,500 (about $36,800) each.
• Galleria Lorcan O’Neill sold works by Giorgio Griffa, Gianni Politi, Tracey Emin, and Kiki Smith, and a piece by Rachel Whiteread to new American collectors.
• Eight of the seventeen Shezad Dawood works on view at the Deutsche Bank Wealth Management Lounge sold at prices ranging from £9,000–£45,000 (about $10,200–$51,300), including hand-painted bronze sculptures and watercolor-and-acrylic-on-paper works.

• Elliott Fine Art made nine sales, including an important work by Frans David Oerder, Portrait of a Zulu (1997), for £60,000 (about $68,400) to a U.K.-based private collector.
• Galerie Bernard Bouche sold five Marthe Wéry acrylic-on-canvas paintings, priced from £18,000–£40,000 (about $20,400–$45,400).
• Galerie Mitterrand sold one large-scale sculpture, three mid-scale sculptures, and 10 lithographs, and had several works on hold.