The single-owner sale of Monsoon founder Peter Simon's collection at Christie's in London on October 14 totaled £107.51 million ($142.3 million), making it the highest-value single-owner collection ever sold at Christie's in the city. All but one of the 41 lots found buyers for a sell-through of 98% by lot, with 43% of lots exceeding their high estimates — a result that sat squarely within the pre-sale expectations and set the tone for the house's Frieze-week double evening.

The collection, assembled over four decades by the high-street fashion entrepreneur, was led by Francis Bacon's fresh-to-market Figure in Movement (1978), acquired by Simon from dealer Ivor Braka in 2006 and shown at the Tate, the Hayward and the Yale Center for British Art. It sold to a bidder in the room for £17.2 million. Piet Mondrian's Composition A, with Double Line and Yellow (1935), first owned by MoMA curator James Johnson Sweeney, made £9.71 million, and Joan Miró's 1925 Peinture (Les amants — Adam et Eve), offered at auction for the first time, achieved £8.56 million.

Seven artist records were established across the two evening sales. Liubov Popova's Painterly Architectonic (1918) drew nearly eight minutes of bidding to reach £7.64 million, more than four times its low estimate. Bridget Riley's Streak 2 (1979) set a new record at £5.21 million, David Bomberg's San Miguel, Toledo, Afternoon at £3.26 million, and records also fell for Portia Zvavahera, Barbara Hepworth for a painting, Igshaan Adams and a Gerhard Richter tapestry.

The marathon evening ran close to four hours in Christie's King Street saleroom. When the final lot of the Simon collection fell, the post-war and contemporary specialist heading the sale embraced the phone-bidding team on the rostrum — a rare show of emotion that reflected how much was riding on the night. The sale continues with a day sale and an online auction from the same collection, both expected to extend the Monsoon story through the week.