Jerry Hall Collection Headlines London's Frieze Art Fair
Assistant Producer, CNBC.com
It’s considered the equivalent of fashion week for the art world.
Each October, artists, dealers and collectors flock to London's Frieze Art Fair.
And this year, a new player's emerged—supermodel Jerry Hall, ex-wife of rock star Mick Jagger.
“Jerry’s such an incredible icon. She’s reinvented herself so many times either as the wife of a famous rock star, as a inspirational mother, as a great collector, this is perhaps an element of her life that is less known,” said Oliver Barker, senior director and senior international specialist in contemporary art at Sotheby’s.
Hall listed 14 artworks for sale at the Sotheby’s Contemporary Auction, part of the week-long Frieze fair.
She acquired the works both before and during her 20-year relationship with Jagger, and, like many collectors, is refreshing her collection.
"She’s felt the moment of having these paintings in her collection has ended," Barker explained. "She wants to reinvest [in art] and buy younger artists,” Barker told CNBC.
Most notably was Lucian Freud’s oil on canvas, "Eight Months Gone", a portrait of Hall pregnant with her fourth child, Gabriel, in 1997. The painting- of the supermodel lying naked on a bed- was expected to fetch $480,000-$640,000, but sold for some $960,000.
“It’s a small jewel ... a great British masterpiece,” said Barker.
The total of the sale was estimated to net Hall at least £1.5 million ($2.3 million), but realized £2.3 million ($3.7 million).
The collection covers two very different periods in her life: the first, her rise to fame as a supermodel in the 1970s— “She really has been painted by some of the great titans of late 20th century art,” said Barker— and the second, her London family-oriented life.
Another prized work at Sotheby's was Andy Warhol’s "Dollar Sign", a present from the artist.
“Andy was incredibly generous in giving art works away to friends and confidantes and Jerry appeared in the early 1980s as an interviewer on Warhol TV and as a result of that they became very good friends and used to go around flea markets and try to find things,” Barker told CNBC.
It was the first time this particular work went under the hammer; estimated to sell between £120,000- £150,000 ($190,000 - $240,000), it fetched $348,000.
“Jerry’s collection is not only a very personal group of works, it's things that she’s bought as a very astute admirer and collector of works,” said Barker.
