Peter Simon’s Monsoon Collection sets record at Christie’s London

The Peter Simon Collection evening sale at Christie’s London achieved £107.5 million, marking the highest total ever for a single-owner collection at the auction house. The collection, assembled by the British fashion mogul and founder of Monsoon, featured works reflecting his interests in color, textiles, and travel.

Key highlights from the sale included Francis Bacon’s ‘Figure in Movement’ (1978), which sold for £17.2 million, and a record-setting sale for Russian Constructivist Liubov Popova, whose work fetched £7.6 million against a low estimate of £1.8 million. Other significant sales included a Piet Mondrian piece for £9.71 million and a Joan Miró for £8.5 million.

Overall, Christie’s autumn evening sales realized £218.6 million, the house’s strongest Frieze Week in a decade. The top lot of the night was Wassily Kandinsky’s ‘Das bunte Leben’ (1907), which sold for £31.6 million.