Christie’s opened the highly anticipated Frieze Week in London on October 14 with a display of market resilience and historical significance, realizing a combined £218.6 million ($287.5 million) across its marquee evening auctions. The results, anchored by a restituted masterpiece by Wassily Kandinsky, marked the most successful slate of autumn evening sales the auction house has staged at its King Street headquarters in a decade.
The evening consisted of two back-to-back sessions: the highly anticipated "Monsoon: The Peter Simon Collection" and the "20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale." Together, these events shattered expectations, more than doubling the total achieved during the same week last October—a staggering increase of over 103 percent. The evening’s standout performance was Wassily Kandinsky’s 1907 masterpiece, Das bunte Leben (The Colorful Life), which commanded £31.6 million ($41.5 million), including buyer’s fees.
The strength of the night was underscored by its performance relative to the wider market. Christie’s results outperformed the competition significantly, generating more than four and a half times the £46.0 million ($61.0 million) realized by Sotheby’s at its own Contemporary Evening Auction held the following night. Across the two Christie’s sessions, seven artist records were set, with four of those benchmarks established by female artists, highlighting a diversifying interest among high-end collectors. While the evening was a broad success, a significant portion of the total was driven by the single-owner collection of Peter Simon, the founder of the fashion brand Monsoon, which contributed nearly half of the night’s overall volume.
A Fashion Founder’s Vision: The Monsoon Collection
The proceedings began with the auction of the Monsoon collection, a trove assembled over four decades by British retail magnate Peter Simon. Having opened his first Monsoon retail shop in 1973, Simon’s approach to art collecting mirrored the same adventurous spirit and vivid aesthetic that defined his brand. His eye for color and texture, which became the signature of Monsoon’s global look, was deeply influenced by a formative road trip he took as a young man, traveling from London to Rajasthan. The vibrant textiles and local fashions he encountered throughout Turkey, Iran, and Afghanistan served as the catalyst for his retail empire and, eventually, his distinctive art collection.
Reflecting on the decision to divest his collection, Simon expressed a sense of renewal, noting that it gave him "great pleasure to now offer part of my collection to others, freeing my mind and my walls to start in a new direction."
The collection, which arrived at auction heavily guaranteed, carried a presale estimate of £78.7 to £115.1 million ($103.5 to $151.3 million). The results exceeded expectations, with 40 of the 41 lots selling for a total of £107.5 million ($141.4 million). This performance represents a historic milestone, as no single-owner collection has ever realized a higher total at Christie’s London. The auction achieved a 98 percent sell-through rate by lot and a 99 percent sell-through rate by value, with 43 percent of the lots exceeding their high presale estimates. The only item to remain unsold was Frank Auerbach’s 1967 work, Head of Miss Steinberg.
The highlight of the Monsoon sale was Francis Bacon’s Figure in Movement (1978). Simon had acquired the piece from dealer Ivor Braka in 2006. The painting belongs to the poignant series Bacon created in the wake of the death of his partner, George Dyer, and it carries the prestige of having been featured in the Tate Gallery’s major Bacon retrospective in 1985. Under the gavel of Christie’s Chief Auctioneer Adrien Meyer, the work realized £14.5 million ($19.1 million), landing just above the lower end of its £14 to £18 million estimate.
Deeper into the Monsoon catalogue, several artists achieved significant new records. Ljubov Popova, the pioneering Russian Cubo-Futurist who passed away at the age of 35 in 1924, saw her 1918 work, Painterly Architectonic, spark a competitive bidding war that lasted nearly eight minutes. It ultimately sold for £7.6 million ($10.0 million), more than quadruple its £1.8 million low estimate. Similarly, Bridget Riley’s 1979 acrylic on linen, Streak 2—a piece formerly held in the prestigious Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection—achieved £5.2 million ($6.9 million). Meanwhile, David Bomberg’s 1929 landscape, San Miguel, Toledo, Afternoon, reached £3.3 million ($4.3 million), nearly tripling its high estimate and more than doubling the artist’s previous auction record.
The evening continued to produce benchmarks, with Barbara Hepworth’s The Hands and the Arm (1948) setting a record for one of her paintings at £537,600 ($706,968). The Zimbabwean painter Portia Zvavahera also saw a record, with her work fetching £307,200 ($403,982). Furthermore, Hurvin Anderson’s Last House (2013), which had been displayed at Tate Britain only weeks prior to the auction, sold for £5.7 million ($7.5 million), almost three times its low estimate.
Kandinsky’s Das bunte Leben Emerges as the Star of Frieze Week
As the final lot of the Monsoon collection was hammered down, the atmosphere in the room shifted toward the 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale. The energy of the room reached its peak with the presentation of Wassily Kandinsky’s Das bunte Leben (1907). The painting, a panoramic depiction of pilgrims, lovers, and a funeral procession rooted in Russian folklore, drew nearly six minutes of intense bidding. It ultimately stood as the top lot of the entire Frieze Week.
The sale had been catalogued with 51 lots, carrying a total presale estimate of £88.5 to £128.9 million. While five works were withdrawn—including pieces by Anselm Kiefer, Louise Bourgeois, and Paula Rego—the remaining 46 lots performed well, with 39 selling for a 84.8 percent sell-through rate. The sale generated a total of £111.1 million ($146.1 million), marking a 3.9 percent increase over the equivalent sale in October 2025.
The provenance of Das bunte Leben added an extra layer of historical gravity to the evening. Created during the year Kandinsky spent in Paris with Gabriele Münter, the work was exhibited at the 1907 Salon d’Automne. Following its sale in occupied Amsterdam in 1940, it spent five decades on loan to the Lenbachhaus in Munich. In June 2023, the work was restituted to the heirs of the German-Jewish collector Hedwig Lewenstein-Weyermann. With an estimate of £18 to £25 million, the final hammer price of £27 million ($35.5 million) went to a telephone bidder represented by Maria Los, Christie’s head of client advisory for the Americas.
Other notable works in the evening sale included Piet Mondrian’s Composition III (Komposition No. XIII) (1920), which fetched £25.2 million ($33.2 million), comfortably within its £20 to £30 million estimate. As one of only eight paintings completed by Mondrian in 1920, and with five of those already held in major institutional collections such as the Tate and MoMA, this was a rare appearance for the work at auction. Additionally, David Hockney’s Dog Painting 17 (1995), an intimate portrait of his dachshund, Stanley, drew four bidders before selling for £3.5 million ($4.6 million), significantly exceeding its £1.5 to £2.5 million estimate.
However, the market also showed signs of selectivity. Andy Warhol’s 5 Deaths Twice II (1963) realized £4.4 million ($5.7 million), falling short of its £6 to £8 million target, while Cy Twombly’s Untitled (1971) failed to sell.
The evening concluded with further record-setting moments. Igshaan Adams’s The certainty of being a rose (ii) (2026) achieved £96,000 ($126,244), with proceeds benefiting Artists for Climate Action. Gerhard Richter also saw a record for one of his tapestries, as Abdu (2009)—from an edition of eight—sold for £1.2 million ($1.5 million).
The momentum of the week was bolstered by successful day sales, including the Monsoon day sale at £10.2 million ($13.6 million), the Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale at £11.8 million ($15.7 million), and the Impressionist and Modern Art Day and Works on Paper Sale at £12.1 million ($16.1 million). In total, Christie’s realized £252.7 million ($332.8 million) across its five London sales. The house now shifts its focus to the Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale on October 21, followed by a series of high-profile auctions in Paris.
