The first major test of the upper echelons of the secondary market since COVID-19 shut down most of the world’s auction house salesrooms was, by most measures, a success. It was also a testament to the endurance of Sotheby’s auctioneer Oliver Barker, who conducted Monday night’s sale from a rostrum surrounded by video screens at Sotheby’s London headquarters—where, by the time the nearly five-hour-long session concluded, it was well past 4 a.m.—fielding bids from his British colleagues as well as those in New York and Hong Kong. Though there were minor mix-ups along the way and specialists seemed to lose steam in the late going, the affair saw plenty of competition between phone and online bidders and a smattering of smashed auction records, especially for women artists.
