Christie's Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale in London closed on 21 October 2026 with a total of $30.82 million (£23.09 million), meeting its pre-sale estimate. Bidding was broad rather than top-heavy: 79 per cent of lots sold above their low estimates, according to market-data publisher HENI, which compiles its figures from the saleroom results.

The night's runaway lot was Walter Sickert's The Horses of St Mark's, Venice, painted in 1901. Offered with a low estimate of $105,700, the canvas drew sustained competition before selling for $734,600 — 595 per cent above the low, the largest estimate-beating multiple of the evening. The painting has now changed hands at auction three times, each appearance lifting its market standing.

Works by Barbara Hepworth were also among the lots that drew determined bidding, underlining continued collector appetite for the giants of twentieth-century British sculpture and painting. The evening sale's strength sat in its depth: with nearly four in five lots beating their low estimates, the result suggests demand spread across the catalogue rather than concentrated in a handful of trophy lots.

Figures cited by HENI include buyer's fees and premiums in the sale prices, while estimates exclude premiums — the house's standard reporting convention. The result extends a strong October run for the London salerooms, which have seen a string of above-estimate performances through the autumn season. London's October sales have been a bright spot in an otherwise cautious year for the auction market. Christie's 20th and 21st century evening sales in the capital on 14 October brought in £218.6 million — more than double the equivalent sales a year earlier — while Phillips' tightly curated evening sale the next night sold all 20 lots for £14.8 million. Against that backdrop, the Modern British result reads as further evidence that buyers remain willing to compete hard for fresh, well-estimated material.