As the world's collecting elite descended on the capital, some big-ticket sales were reported and some well-known names spotted trawling the aisles. Power couple Beyonce and Jay-Z had Frieze and Frieze Masters fairs to themselves with a private tour once even the dealers had gone home.
At the time of writing on Friday, confirmed deals at Frieze Masters included Andy Warhol's The Scream (After Edvard Munch), a 1984 screenprint, by Skarstedt for around $5.5m (£3.4m), while New York dealer Richard L. Feigen's Pieta by Catalan painter Gonçal Peris Sarrià, c.1430-1440, was on reserve for a museum, with an asking price of $950,000.
PAD London, a stylish mix of art and design in Berkeley Square, started with a healthy list of five- and six-figure sales. Swiss art dealers Galerie Gmurzynska sold two works for around $2m - an Yves Klein and a large work by Robert Indiana.
A full review of the fairs will follow in a future issue.
Frieze Week Auctions
Six of the ten auctions had taken place by Friday, with the running total from sales at Christie's and Phillips already over £140m (including premium) - the auctions at Sotheby's and Bonhams had still to take place.
The series saw the inaugural sale at Phillips' new saleroom in Berkeley Square. Their Contemporary art evening sale on October 15 drew a lively crowd on a rainy night in Mayfair and generated a hammer total of £12.4m from 46 lots (37 sold). Although below the £15.5m-22.2m estimate, the auctioneers said they had been encouraged by the response and the number of new clients who came through the doors.
The top lot was an untitled acrylic on aluminium by Christopher Wool (b.1955) which sold on low estimate at £1.8m to a phone bidder, but better competition came for an unusual metal and glass installation by stencil-maestro Banksy (b.1975) that overshot a £300,000-500,000 estimate and was knocked down at £600,000, again on the phone.
