Upcoming auction lots
Individual works, connected to their artists.
Our first selection covers Modern British works at Christie’s and Sotheby’s. Dates refer to the live sale. Entries leave this list after the sale date; catalogue changes and withdrawals require rechecking.
9 selected lots · Auction calendar · Public viewings
Four-Square (Four Circles)
Dame Barbara Hepworth · Conceived and cast in 1966
Bronze; number 5 from an edition of 7, plus 1 artist’s cast. 60 cm high.
Why it merits attention
Four pierced squares turn a solid bronze into a sequence of framed views. This 1966 cast is numbered 5/7; the catalogue records the model as BH 428 and distinguishes exhibitions of other casts. The lot page places this work at Greenford Park Warehouse, so check access with the house before travelling.
Source: Sotheby’s lot catalogueEstimate £200,000–£300,000
Modern British & Irish Art Evening Auction · London
Catalogue checked 5 October 2026. Estimates exclude fees and taxes; confirm availability with the auction house.
Small Form (Amulet)
Barbara Hepworth · 1960
White alabaster. 20.5 cm diameter.
Why it merits attention
A small alabaster carving with an early exhibition record: Sotheby’s lists it in Hepworth’s Zurich exhibition in October 1960, the year it was made. At 20.5 cm across, it offers a compact example of her work in stone, documented in the catalogue of her 1960–69 sculpture.
Source: Sotheby’s catalogueEstimate £600,000–£800,000
Modern British & Irish Art Evening Auction · London
Catalogue checked 5 October 2026. Estimates exclude fees and taxes; confirm availability with the auction house.
The Hands and the Arm
Barbara Hepworth · 1948
Oil and pencil on board. 30.5 × 38 cm.
Why it merits attention
Part of Hepworth’s Hospital Drawings, this study concentrates on the hands and gaze of a surgeon at work. It offers a figurative counterpart to her sculpture: the catalogue describes pencil lines incised into a prepared surface, a technique she compared with working slate.
Source: Christie’s catalogueEstimate £150,000–£250,000
Monsoon: The Peter Simon Collection Evening Sale · London
Catalogue checked 30 September 2026. Estimates exclude fees and taxes; confirm availability with the auction house.
Torso
Barbara Hepworth · 1929
Pyinkado wood, on a slate base; unique. 32.4 cm high, excluding base.
Why it merits attention
An early carving that traces Hepworth’s movement from the figure towards abstraction. Christie’s identifies it as one of five torsos made between 1927 and 1932, and the only wooden example of that group still in private hands. It toured in Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life.
Source: Christie’s catalogueEstimate £300,000–£500,000
Monsoon: The Peter Simon Collection Evening Sale · London
Catalogue checked 30 September 2026. Estimates exclude fees and taxes; confirm availability with the auction house.
1934 (relief)
Ben Nicholson · 1934
Oil on carved wood relief, on board. 55.9 × 80.7 cm.
Why it merits attention
Made near the beginning of Nicholson’s white reliefs, this work uses carved depth and shadow to make a picture from geometric forms. The catalogue records its purchase directly from Nicholson in 1935 by Henri and Henriette Frankfort, and its illustration in Axis that year.
Source: Christie’s catalogueEstimate £1,000,000–£1,500,000
Monsoon: The Peter Simon Collection Evening Sale · London
Catalogue checked 30 September 2026. Estimates exclude fees and taxes; confirm availability with the auction house.
San Miguel, Toledo, Afternoon
David Bomberg · 1929
Oil on canvas. 71.1 × 70.5 cm.
Why it merits attention
Bomberg’s Toledo paintings mark a shift towards a more physical handling of landscape. Here the church, roofs and hillside are built through thick, worked paint. The catalogue records this canvas in Tate’s 1988 Bomberg retrospective, giving the selection an exhibition history beyond the sale.
Source: Christie’s catalogueEstimate £800,000–£1,200,000
Monsoon: The Peter Simon Collection Evening Sale · London
Catalogue checked 30 September 2026. Estimates exclude fees and taxes; confirm availability with the auction house.
Head of Miss Steinberg
Frank Auerbach · 1967
Oil on canvas. 76.2 × 71.8 cm.
Why it merits attention
This is the first of Auerbach’s two painted portraits of Barbara Steinberg, according to Christie’s. Dark strokes articulate the head against green, showing how drawing became integral to his painted portraits in the later 1960s. The limited palette concentrates attention on the sitter’s structure and expression.
Source: Christie’s catalogueEstimate £700,000–£1,000,000
Monsoon: The Peter Simon Collection Evening Sale · London
Catalogue checked 30 September 2026. Estimates exclude fees and taxes; confirm availability with the auction house.
Cloud Base
Peter Lanyon · 1962
Oil on canvas. 121.9 × 182.8 cm.
Why it merits attention
A painting from Lanyon’s gliding years, when flight changed how he represented landscape. Its reverse dates it to May 1962; Christie’s connects the central diagonal motif with his Porthmeor Mural, then in progress. That link places the canvas within a larger experiment in pictorial space.
Source: Christie’s catalogueEstimate £450,000–£650,000
Monsoon: The Peter Simon Collection Evening Sale · London
Catalogue checked 30 September 2026. Estimates exclude fees and taxes; confirm availability with the auction house.
Small Mincarlo
Barbara Hepworth · Conceived and cast in 1971
Brass and string. 17.5 cm high, excluding base.
Why it merits attention
Folded brass discs and taut string turn a small sculpture into a study of enclosed space. Sotheby’s identifies it with Hepworth’s final edition using string. A letter from the artist and the original authenticated photographic record accompany this example, adding documentary interest to the work.
Source: Sotheby’s catalogueEstimate £70,000–£100,000
Modern British & Irish Art Day Auction · London
Catalogue checked 5 October 2026. Estimates exclude fees and taxes; confirm availability with the auction house.