Hirst Shock At Art Auction

China's Yue Minjun, Indian-born Raqib Shaw and the U.K.'s Banksy set records in the first 20 minutes of a London art auction last night, leaving Mark Rothko and Damien Hirst in the dust as buyers voted against some of the biggest names in Sotheby's sale. Yue's "Execution," a 1995 oil painting of laughing men in underwear, set a record both for the artist and for a Chinese contemporary work, taking 2.9 million pounds including commission from a telephone buyer. U.K. artist Hirst's 1992 spot painting, "Adenosine," estimated to go for as much as 2.5 million pounds, failed to sell. Sotheby's sale was the first big international auction since the U.S. subprime-mortgage losses spilled into the credit markets. It totaled 34.9 million pounds with commissions, compared with a top estimate of 40.4 million pounds before commissions, indicating that art sellers may find it harder to reach their top targets as buyers become more selective. New York dealer Larry Gagosian bought works by U.K. artist Francis Bacon and U.S. Pop artists Richard Prince and Ed Ruscha. Buyers were 27 percent British, 19 percent American, 42 percent from continental Europe and 6 percent Asian, Sotheby's said. None of the remaining buyers were Russian or Chinese, it said. Less than 84 percent of the lots were sold. Graffiti artist Banksy's "The Rude Lord," an original 1776 Thomas Beach portrait altered by Banksy to show an extended finger, had a top estimate of 200,000 pounds. It took 322,900 pounds from a telephone buyer. The artist's previous auction record was 288,000 pounds. (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art