Sotheby's paired its 20th Century Italian Art and Contemporary Art evening auctions in London on October 15 and took a combined £30.4 million ($48.8 million), comfortably inside the £22.3–30.5 million pre-sale range and more than half again above last year's equivalent total of £20 million. The two sales shared one evening and one crowded saleroom, with buyers competing from Europe, the Americas and Asia.

The Italian sale led the way, making £17.22 million — the highest total ever recorded for a Sotheby's sale in the field — with sell-through of 89% by lot and 97% by value. Lucio Fontana dominated: a 1965 white Concetto Spaziale, Attese and a green-and-gold companion each brought £2,281,250, and a third Fontana canvas made £1,777,250. Giorgio de Chirico's 1916 metaphysical interior reached £1,833,250, while Marino Marini's Cavaliere more than doubled its estimate at £1,497,250.

The contemporary sale realized £13.26 million, the third-highest October total for a Sotheby's contemporary evening auction, selling 90% by lot. Four artist records fell: Ged Quinn, Albert Oehlen, Francesco Vezzoli and the young Ahmed Alsoudani, making his auction debut. Andy Warhol's Diamond Dust Shoes, fresh to the market, led at £1,553,250, and Andreas Gursky's Pyongyang IV nearly doubled its high estimate at £1,329,250.

The first half of Jerry Hall's collection contributed £2,336,650, well ahead of the £1.5 million expected for the whole group. Highlights included the Warhol Dollar Sign the artist gifted her for her work on his television show, at £217,250; Lucian Freud's Eight Months Gone, a portrait of a pregnant Hall, at £601,250; and Frank Auerbach's Head of Helen Gillespie IV at £1,071,650. Eight further works from her collection, including pieces by Freud and Warhol, go under the hammer in the day sale.