The art collection of Frank Dunphy, the mentor and business-manager of Damien Hirst, has been sold for £10.1m ($13.1m) by Sotheby's in London. Pre-sale estimates had been between £5.2 and £7.3m. Around 92% of the 200 pieces sold of the Yellow Ball collection, the joint company of Frank and Lorna Dunphy. In a statement, Sotheby's, which is owned by Christie's, said: "The auction house will now be able to focus on its core business of selling contemporary art, with an emphasis on works from leading international Dunphy advised artists like Tracey Emin and Angus Fairhurst, alongside Hirst.
The art collection of Frank Dunphy, the mentor and business-manager of Damien Hirst, has been sold for £10.1m ($13.1m) by Sotheby's in London. Pre-sale estimates had been between £5.2 and £7.3m. Around 92% of the 200 pieces sold of the Yellow Ball collection, the joint company of Frank and Lorna Dunphy. Highlights included the sale of Concetto Spaziale, Attese (1961) by Lucio Fontana for £1.2m, Andy Warhol's Dollar Sign (1982) for £730,000, and Damien Hirst's gift to the Dunphys on their retirement, N-Chloroacetyl-L-Phenylalanine Crystalline (1997), which sold for £358,000. Dunphy advised artists like Tracey Emin and Angus Fairhurst, alongside Hirst.