Bloomberg reports guitarist Eric Clapton is set to sell a painting by Gerhard Richter for as much as 20 times what he paid for it in 2001. Painted in 1994, Abstraktes Bild (809-4) is now valued at some $20 million and will be offered tomorrow at Sotheby’s in London. In 2002, a 40-year retrospective of Richter’s work was held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and traveled to The Art Institute of Chicago, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpturen Garden inWashington. Produced as part of a concise series of four works numbered 809 in Richter’s Catalogue Raisonne, Sotheby’s says the monumentally scaled and richly chromatic Abstraktes Bild (809-4) ranks alongside the very highest tier of Richter Abstracts housed in museums internationally. Richter is regarded as the top-selling living artist.
Abstraktes Bi/d (809-4) by Gerhard Richter, 1994, oil on canvas, 225×200 em (Estimate £9-12 million/$14.1-18.8 million*) Image from Sotheby’s press release.
Urban Art & Antiques 