A buzzing auction room, strong presence of international bidders, and numerous top sales characterised the Dorotheum auction of contemporary art on 16th May 2013, which continued the success of the current auction week, culminating in this, the most successful contemporary art auction in Dorotheum history.
Ilya Kabakov's large format „Die Toilette“ of 2001, a return to his work during the Soviet art underground of the nineteen-eighties, proved to be worth 366.300 Euro to the winning bidder. The Italian avant-garde of the nineteen-sixties saw significant appreciation, in particular Enrico Castellani's „Superficie nera“, which sold for several times its estimate at 280,900 Euro. Created 20 years later, „Superficie bianca“ by the same artist enjoyed similar success at 158,900 Euro. Frank Stella's monstrous whale sculpture „Etymology (Q 10)“, part of the „Moby Dick Series“, found a new owner for 244,300 Euro.
215,380 Euro was the winning bid for an early watercolour by Hundertwasser. Coinciding with the artist's 65th birthday, Gottfried Helnwein's demonic „Mouse III“ set a new world record for his work at 110,100 Euro.
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