Next month, during the spring sales in London, Sotheby’s will auction off ten works to raise money for the Royal Academy of Arts in London, which has been in a financial crisis since the pandemic.
The works have all been donated by living or honorary Royal Academicians, in the hopes of raising enough funds to “secure the future of the Royal Academy as a place where creativity flourishes and artists can fully realise their vision,” Batia Ofer, chair of the Royal Academy Trust told the Art Newspaper. The cumulative high estimate of the works is around £2.6 million ($3.7 milion).
Among the works on offer is a tapestry by El Anatsui (estimate £800,000-£1.2 million) and an oil painting by Sean Scully (estimate £600,000-£800,000)—both scheduled to hit the block during the contemporary evening sale on March 4—along with works by William Kentridge, Tony Cragg, Georg Baselitz, Anish Kapoor, Mimmo Paladino and Jeff Koons. Those works will appear in the day sale on March 5.
Unlike many other arts institutions in London, the Royal Academy does not recieve direct government funding, but instead relies on ticket sales, sponsorships, memberships, and donations. Since the Royal Academy reopened after the pandemic in 2022, its annual visitors dropped from 1.25 million in 2019 to nearly half that in 2022, according to the Guardian. While visitor numbers increased to 710,000 in 2023, they dropped again in 2024 to 622,000.
Last year, the institution said it was considering eliminating 60 roles as part of a cost-cutting measure, about 18 percent of its workforce, which drew major protests. The Royal Academy has not yet gone forward with the eliminations.
While the Royal Academy has done in-house benefit auctions in years past, supported by Sotheby’s, this year’s sale marks the “first time they’re really taking it onto the main stage of a major auction season,” according to Oliver Barker, chairman of Sotheby’s Europe.
The Royal Academy’s recent survey of Kerry James Marshall, “The Histories,” garnered rave reviews when it opened last fall. That show closed in January.
