London, 6 March 2026 - A monumental sculpture by the British artist Sarah Lucas is amongst the highlights of Bonhams' 20th and 21st Century Art Evening sale at Bonhams New Bond Street, London. The large scale bronze is from an edition of 3 + 1 artist's proof, one of which featured in Lucas' major solo exhibition I SCREAM DADDIO for the British Pavilion at the 56th Venice International Art Biennale 2015. The work, which comes to auction for the first time, has an estimate of £300,000-400,000.
Marina Ruiz Colomer, Head of Bonhams Post-War & Contemporary Art department in London, commented: "Sarah Lucas is amongst on the most significant British artists who rose to prominence as part of the YBAs (Young British Artists) in the late 1980s and early 90s. Gold Cup Maradona sees her explore the same themes she has explored in her iconic nylon sculptures in a monumental scale. The work, however, continues to channel themes central to her work such as eroticism and humour, to make something that is witty, bold and powerful."
Named after the legendary Argentine footballer, the 15-foot-high sculpture cast from bronze and finished in bright yellow features a figure reclining on the ground while an enormous phallus soars into the air, it has been referred to a 'part man, part maypole, part praying mantis'. The work began as a handmade model in Lucas' customary materials, tights, wire, and kapok, before being transformed into a cast.
"Humour is about negotiating the contradictions thrown up by convention. To a certain extent humour and seriousness are interchangeable. Otherwise it wouldn't be funny. Or devastating.", Sarah Lucas
Other highlights of the sale include:
• Henri Le Sidaner (1862-1939), Les arbres sur la rive, Quimperlé (Painted in Versailles in 1931). Estimate: £150,000 - 200,000.
Painted in his Versailles studio in 1931, the composition of Les arbres sur la rive, Quimperlé is inspired by the artist's memory of Quimperlé, a modest Breton town situated at the confluence of three rivers, which the artist had visited several years earlier. Le Sidaner held the Impressionists and Claude Monet in deep admiration, yet in deliberate contrast to the Impressionists, Le Sidaner did not habitually complete his paintings en plein air. Working from sketches he had made at the location, Le Sidaner recreated the scene guided by memory and sensation. Offering a sentimental evocation of the landscape, Les arbres sur la rive, Quimperlé stands as a compelling example of Le Sidaner's elegiac tone, situating the spectator within the scene, at a time when much of European art pursued fragmentation, political engagement, or radical formal experimentation.
• Alighiero Boetti (1940-1994), Mettere i verbi all'infinito (Executed in 1978). Estimate: £200,000 - 300,000.
Mettere i verbi all'infinito, from 1978, is a defining work from Alighiero Boetti's celebrated lavori biro series (or ballpoint drawings), which examine the intersections of linguistic, numerical and visual systems. Initiated in 1972, the series employs the modest medium of the ballpoint pen to generate densely textured fields of color, composed of accumulative strokes and punctuated by small, luminous white commas. Through this controlled yet open-ended process, Mettere i verbi all'infinito beautifully articulates Boetti's sustained engagement with structure, language, systematisation and the production of meaning.
• Frank Auerbach (1931-2024), Head of Catherine Lampert (Painted in 1996). Estimate: £200,000 - 300,000.
Painted in 1996, Head of Catherine Lampert belongs to a sustained and intensely focused series of portraits of Catherine Lampert, Auerbach's close friend, biographer, and long-term sitter. The two first met in 1978, when Lampert was organising Auerbach's retrospective at the Hayward Gallery in London and over the decades, Lampert sat for Auerbach up to twice a week, becoming the subject of more than seventy portraits.
• Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), Éternel Printemps, second état, 3ème réduction (Conceived in 1884 and in this reduced size in 1898, this bronze version cast by the Barbedienne foundry between 1908 and 1912.). Estimate: £150,000 - 250,000.
One of Auguste Rodin's most celebrated sculptures and among the greatest commercial successes of his career, Éternel Printemps, second état, 3ème réduction was conceived in 1884 at a moment of profound emotional and artistic intensity. The work emerged during Rodin's passionate relationship with Camille Claudel, who had recently joined his studio as an assistant and whose presence would prove transformative to his art. Originally developed as part of La porte de l'Enfer, the monumental bronze doors inspired by Dante Alighieri's Inferno, commissioned in 1880, the rapturous embrace of the lovers was ultimately deemed too hopeful in tone for Rodin's vision of damnation and despair. Freed from that context, Éternel Printemps, second état, 3ème réduction evolved into an autonomous celebration of desire, vitality and enduring passion.
The sale will be followed by 20th and 21st Century Art Day Sale on 6 March 2026.
The Modern & Contemporary African Art (19 March 2026) will also be on view alongside the sales at Bonhams New Bond Street, London.
(Press Release)
