Barbara Hepworth's The Hands and the Arm (1948) sold for $710,800 (£537,600) at Christie's in London on October 14, more than three and a half times its low estimate.

The result came during Christie's October London sales, an evening sequence headlined by the $41.7 million sale of Wassily Kandinsky's restituted Das bunte Leben, which posted seven artist auction records across two sessions. Against that backdrop, the Hepworth's performance — 3.5 times its low estimate — fit a night in which bidding ran ahead of expectations for modern British and European modernist works.

Painted in oil and pencil on board and measuring 30.5 by 38.0 centimeters, the work has been traded three times. It last sold at auction at Christie's in 1994 for $29,400; the $710,800 result therefore represents a gain of $681,400 over 32 years, which HENI calculates as equivalent to a 10 percent annualized return — one of the most striking holding-period returns of the week's sales.

For Hepworth, whose market has been steadily reappraised in recent years, the result adds another data point to a run of strong London performances for postwar British art during the October season.

The result continues a strong October season for postwar British art in London. Day sales at Sotheby's and Christie's have repeatedly rewarded tightly held works returning to the market after decades in private hands — and the Hepworth, absent from auction for 32 years, rewarded its consignor with one of the week's most striking holding-period returns.