Sex in the saleroom: Erotic Art auction at Sotheby’s Mayfair will get pulses racing this Valentine's Day

Want to buy a love token? Ditch the red roses and take your Valentine to see many striking lots — that would make a real conversation piece for your home — at raunchy auction Erotic: Passion & Desire at Sotheby's.
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Philippa Stockley7 February 2018

Here’s an idea for Valentine’s Day: ditch the red roses and take your beloved to see something raunchy. The Sotheby’s auction, Erotic: Passion & Desire, is on February 15 and is just the place to buy a love token that’ll grace your home.

So put up your hand for love and bid away. There’s also an online auction with cheaper work. Or you can just go for a look — it’s free.

The auction house held its first “erotic” sale last year, raising more than expected at £5 million.

Among many striking lots, Marc Quinn’s Siren, a gilded bronze sculpture depicting supermodel Kate Moss in a yoga pose, sold for £70,000.

This year’s 90 very varied lots again offer the chance to buy a real conversation piece for your home. A few lots are very frank, but many are romantic and tender, while others are hilarious.

Works range from ancient Roman sculpture to an important 17th-century oil painting, to ultra-modern photography.

There are pieces by a dazzling array of world-class artists, including Sir Peter Lely, Picasso, Matisse, Yves Klein, Man Ray, Rankin and Tracey Emin.

Despite the catalogue keyword “Erotic” — and, yes, much for sale is unabashedly sensual — it shouldn’t be confused with the vapid smut swirling around on social media in the form of sexy selfies.

Cute man in pants: Pin Me Up by Rankin (£4,000-£6,000)

There is great art here, so spare your loved one’s blushes if it gets a bit hot in there for them — but then go back yourself for a second look.

THOSE RAUNCHY ROMANS

Although some of us feel coy looking at breasts and bums, artists put in their heart and soul.

This type of work tends to be rare, the lots are gorgeous, and they’ll probably go up in value, too.

Stars of the sale include lot 37, a Roman terracotta plaque, 59cms long, of a brothel scene. It shows a toga-wearing couple meeting in the street, a dog playful at their heels. Then the couple go inside and make whoopee.

They’re making whoopee: Roman terracotta plaque of a brothel scene (£20,000-£30,000)

Moulded well over 1,000 years ago, this fascinating piece of history is estimated at £20,000-£30,000.

Not quite as old, but a true one-off, is Lely’s c1660 life-size oil portrait of Elizabeth Trentham, Viscountess Cullen, as Venus. The voluptuous, independently wealthy aristocrat lies naked on a rumpled sheet.

Total nakedness in a portrait was then unheard of, although, looking at her curious right-hand side, perhaps Lely was forced to resort to his imagination a bit.

Either way, this enchanting picture of an avowed libertine is very rare, and valued at £80,000-£120,000.

YOU’VE GOT TO LAUGH

Picasso’s take on nudity in this sale is sweet and funny. Three seated women gossip, apparently oblivious to being starkers.

Lot 7, Trois Nus Assis was done in 1967 in crayon when the artist was 86. Its lovely, relaxed lines make this very desirable. The estimate is £180,000-£250,000.

Also great fun is 20th-century Surrealist photographer Man Ray’s Mr and Mrs Woodman, one of a series of photographs showing two wooden mannequins in sexy poses. You’ve got to laugh.

Can you figure it out?: lot 58 is Mr & Mrs Woodman, a vintage silver print from about 1928 by Surrealist photographer Man Ray. The auction estimate is £30,000-£50,000

It is lot 58, a vintage silver print from 1928, for £30,000-£50,000.

LOVE ME TENDER

From 1962, in the tender camp, there’s a striking resin and plaster Venus Bleue from artist Yves Klein (he of intense Yves Klein blue).

Lot 3, estimated £50,000-£70,000 and 69cms high, it would be amazing in a modern interior.

Mid-20th century French avant-garde painter Francis Picabia used magazines as inspiration. His 1941 The Bathers, lot 15, carries a high estimate of £400,000-£600,000. The work is complex, striking and thought-provoking rather than provocative.

The rest is history: the first issue of Playboy, featuring Marilyn Monroe on the cover and also inside the magazine (£3,000-£5,000)

Right at the other end of the price scale, but sure to fuel interest, is the first ever Playboy magazine, from 1953.

Astute Hugh Hefner put a young Marilyn Monroe on the cover and inside, and the rest is history. That first magazine was priced at just 50 cents. This lot, number 74, is a gem, priced to titillate and tempt at £3,000-£5,000.

FAMOUS AND FROLICSOME

Stunning photos feature famous subjects with bodies to die for.

Take fashion photographer Richard Avedon’s 1981 photo for Vogue, Nastassja Kinski and the Serpent, £50,000-£70,000. No “naughty bits” are on show — it’s the mix of actress Kinski’s beauty with the connotations of the snake — which appears to be tasting her ear — that adds allure.

Modern eroticism: Bunny II by Tyler Shields (£3,000-£5,000)

Model Kate Moss features in She’s Light (Laser 3) a spellbinding 2013 “lenticular” print on a lightbox by Chris Levine, estimate £60,000-£80,000.

Despite its singing colours and Moss’s bare breasts, this fine image is utterly serene.

Fab lots online include Pin Me Up (2012), a cute man in pants by Rankin, £4,000-£6,000, and Bunny II, a 2017 photo of a woman in lace bunny ears by Tyler Shields, £3,000-£5,000.

  • The sale, Erotic: Passion & Desire, is on February 15 at Sotheby’s, 34-35 New Bond Street, W1. The online auction is running now until February 16.

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