World record for Carla Accardi in Contemporary Art auction at Dorothem's

Great international participation and outstanding results were achieved for the Contemporary Art auction organized by Dorotheum in Vienna on May 20, 2026, an evening that attracted the market’s attention mainly thanks to the new world record set by Carla Accardi (Trapani, 1924 - Rome, 2014), a central figure in Italian art of the second half of the 20th century and a leading figure in the European abstract avant-garde. Leading the sale was in fact the work Fonda notte - Pieno giorno, which was awarded to a telephone bidder for 520,000 euros, a figure that represents the highest auction price ever achieved so far by the artist. The result marks a significant step in the international recognition of the work of Accardi, long considered one of the most influential voices in postwar Italian art.

An artist featured several times at the Venice Biennale, Carla Accardi developed throughout her career a research focused on sign, color and abstract experimentation, contributing decisively to the renewal of Italian pictorial language in the second half of the 20th century. Her works are now held in important international collections and present in leading museum institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Fondazione Prada.

The result obtained by Fonda notte - Pieno giorno confirms the growing interest of the international market in the artist’s historical production and more generally in the female protagonists of European contemporary art, a segment that in recent years has seen a significant expansion both on the critical and collectors’ levels.

In fact, Dorotheum’s sale showed strong demand for works by female artists, with particularly competitive results. Prominent among them was Martha Jungwirth’s 2012 oil painting belonging to the Fruchtfleisch series, which sold for 429,000 euros. The Austrian artist, known for a gestural and strongly textured painting, thus continues to consolidate her position in the international market. Also important was the result achieved by Miriam Cahn’s 1996 painting Unklar, whose bids rose to 195 thousand euros. The work confirms the growing interest in the production of the Swiss artist, whose research has been dealing for years with themes related to the body, vulnerability and the political dimension of the image.

Among the artists in the catalog was also Helena Vieira da Silva, one of the historical figures of 20th-century European abstraction, strong in her recent monographic exhibition at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. One of her works was awarded 104,000 euros, contributing to the overall good performance of the section devoted to international art.

The evening also saw important results for artists from Central Europe and the German area. Particularly strong competition for the works of Mikuláš Medek, a reference author of Czech post-World War II art, who obtained two adjudications of 546 thousand and 338 thousand euros, respectively. Excellent results also for Günther Uecker, whose celebrated Nagelbild, one of the iconic compositions made with nails that characterize his production, sold for 455 thousand euros. The work confirms the market’s persistent focus on historical artists associated with the kinetic and monochrome experiments of late 20th-century Europe. The sale’s top lots also included Thomas Schütte’s bronze sculpture Vater Staat, which also sold for 520 thousand euros. Schütte, considered one of Germany’s leading contemporary artists, continues to achieve major results at international auctions thanks to a production that combines sculpture, installation and political reflection.

The May 20 auction confirms Dorotheum’s role as a major European player in modern and contemporary art, capable of attracting international collectors and intercepting new market trends. In particular, the record achieved by Carla Accardi is a significant sign of the growing appreciation of postwar Italian women artists, who are increasingly present in museum collections and in the catalogs of major international auction houses. In fact, the result obtained by Fonda notte - Pieno giorno is part of a broader process of rediscovery and critical consolidation of the work of Carla Accardi, whose work continues to be the subject of studies, exhibitions and acquisitions by leading cultural institutions. The growth of her quotations reflects not only a commercial interest, but also a broader redefinition of the history of twentieth-century art, in which the contribution of women artists takes on an increasingly central role.

World record for Carla Accardi in Contemporary Art auction at Dorothem's

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