ST IVES
In the decades following the Second World War, St Ives, a fishing village on the tip of Cornwall, became a centre of the avant-garde to rival London. Bowie was fascinated by the region, first visiting in 1993. The artists who lived there are a major focal point in the collection and 35 works were included in the sale.
 New records were set for 9 of the 12 St Ives artists offered.
 Peter Lanyon’s “Witness”, the cover lot of the sale, achieved a record price for the artist of
£797,000 (est. £250,000-350,000, lot 20). Across the collections, seven works by Peter Lanyon
estimated between £520,000-750,000 achieved £1,272,000.
 Opening the three-part sale of Bowie/Collector was an exquisite work by the father of British
studio ceramics, Bernard Leach. Competitive bidding drove the “Leaping Fish” vase to £32,500
(est. £5,000-7,000, lot 1).
 A new record was set for Bryan Wynter for his oil “In the Stream’s Path”, that sold for £131,000
(est. 50,000-70,000, lot 24). A second work “Cornish Harbour” set a record for a work on paper by the artist, soaring to £60,000 (est. £12,000-18,000, lot 120).

CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN ART
17 works by contemporary African artists all soared over estimate. Together, they made over seven times their low estimate, to realise a combined total of £341,875 (est. £47,300-69,400, lot 278-294). Bowie’s interest in this field was inspired by his first visit to South Africa in early 1995 to report on the first Johannesburg Biennale, soon after the democratic general elections that brought apartheid to an end.
 Record prices were achieved for six of the seven contemporary African artists in the sale
 Norman Catherine’s “Cat Man”, estimated at £2,000-3,000, sold for £40,000 – twenty times the
estimate (est. £2,000- 3,000, lot 278).

SURREALISM
Bowie’s collecting extended to Impressionist & Modern and Surrealist Art. He once said “I quite like being misunderstood. I was happy to be the Marcel Duchamp of Rock. I waved such a flag for Duchamp when I was a kid. He was everything because he said that art is dead. That was such a brave thing to say”.

 Marcel Duchamp’s With Hidden Noise (Un Bruit Secret), the only readymade with a sound element, sold for £557,000 (est. £180,000-250,000, lot 34). Concealed inside the work is an object only known to the creator that can only be revealed by destroying the work.
 David Bowie’s chess set by Man Ray, realised £106,250, over five times the pre-sale estimate (est. 20,000-30,000, lot 141).

GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM
David Bowie lived in West Berlin from 1976 until 1978. In those two years, he became an ardent admirer of German Expressionism and the Die Brücke movement particularly. He frequently visited the Die Brücke Museum and two of the Erich Heckel works in its collection are said to have inspired the pose Bowie adopted for the cover of “Heroes”.
 All of the twelve prints by Heckel sold for many multiples of their estimates. Together they realised, £526,375, over five times their combined low estimate (lots 156-167).
 The most valuable artwork sold in the Part II session was Heckel’s self-portrait, considered to be of the foremost images of German Expressionism. It soared to £257,000 (est. £30,000- 50,000).

OUTSIDER ARTISTS
Bowie visited the Gugging Haus der Künstler (House of the Artists) at Klosterneuburg Psychiatric hospital near Vienna with Brian Eno in 1994, prior to their production of the 1995 album Outside. Many of the artists in Bowie’s Outsider collection were patients there, where their creative sides were allowed to flourish.
 All ten lots by ‘Outsider’ artists soared over their high estimates to realised £211,875 (est. £17,300-24,900, lots 168-177). Four new artist records were set.
 The top lot of the group, August Walla’s monumental Ewigkeitendegottt, Sein Engel, which sold for a record £68,750, over ten times the low estimate (est.£6,000-8,000)

MEMPHIS DESIGN
Ettore Sottsass and the Milan-based Memphis group revolutionised design, introducing fun humour and strikingly bold colour combinations. This is cutting-edge design with no limits, no boundaries: a fitting choice for one of the most radical musicians of his generation. 100 lots from David Bowie’s design collection were offered in a dedicated sale.
 David Bowie’s record player, by Pier Giacomo and Achille Castiglioni, made a record £257,000. This playful stereo cabinet is a definitive piece of 1960s Italian design, with examples in the V&A (est. £800-1,200, lot 446).
 A design classic, Bowie's lipstick red "Valentine" typewriter by Sottsass, estimated at £300- 500, sold for £47,500.
 Peter Shire’s ‘Big Sur’ Sofa, designed in 1986, estimated at just £3,000-5,000, sold for a record £77,500 (Lot 459).
 David Bowie’s ‘Cube’ Radio by Marco Zanuso and Richard Sapper, estimated at £150-250, sold for £30,000 (Lot 447).
 13 new artist records set.

AUCTION RECORDS SET FOR 46 ARTISTS: Ivor Abrahams (Lot 228), Kenneth Armitage (Lot 25), Frank Auerbach (Lot 18), Wilhelmina Barns-Graham (Lot 3), John Bellany (Lot 203), Sven Berlin (Lot 243), Willie Bester (Lot 287), Peter Bongani Shange (Lot 280 & 281), Robert Borlase Smart (Lot 249), Derek Boshier (Lot 303), John Bratby (Lot 266), Norman Catherine (lot 279), Patrick Caulfield (Lot

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