Anish Kapoor Value: Top Prices Paid at Auction

Untitled (2003) achieved Kapoor's current auction record when it sold at Sotheby's London in July 2008, exceeding its high estimate of £1.5 million. This alabaster sculpture, measuring nearly 2 square metres, is the perfect example of Kapoor's mature exploration of the void through translucent stone, and was created the same year Kapoor received his CBE. The translucent quality allows light to penetrate the material, creating an effect where solid stone gains a sense of internal depth and space, challenging our perception of solidity and emptiness. The piece belongs to his significant Alabaster series that began in the late 1990s following Kapoor's collaboration with Italian art dealer Massimo Minini, when they toured excavation sites in Brescia, Carrara, and Volterra to source materials. Kapoor holds a great reverence for traditional materials, but seeks to transform them with modern techniques and concepts. According to the artist himself, these alabaster works contain "a history in the stone," where "through this simple device of excavating the stone, it's just as if the whole narrative sequence is suddenly there."

Turning The World Upside Down (1998) sold at Sotheby's New York in May 2011, establishing a significant benchmark for Kapoor's reflective metal sculptures. Two years previously, another piece from the edition of three sold at Sotheby’s New York for £957,600. This stainless steel sculpture series represents a crucial development in Kapoor's artistic journey, marking a period when he began experimenting with highly polished surfaces that transform our perception of space rather than simply reflecting it. It stands in direct contrast to Kapoor's void-focused works - rather than drawing attention to empty space, it engages viewers by literally inverting the space around them in infinite detail. The reflective pieces from this period directly influenced Kapoor's most famous public commissions, including Cloud Gate (2004-06) (commonly known as "The Bean") in Chicago's Millennium Park and the various Sky Mirror installations - including a 2001 piece installed outside the Nottingham Playhouse. As Kapoor himself stated: "I wanted to see if it was possible to make a space full of mirror - not a mirrored object, but a space full of mirror" - demonstrating his conceptual shift from creating objects to creating experiences.

This untitled void sculpture sold at Sotheby's New York in November 2007, continuing the pattern of strong market performance for Kapoor's stone works. The open, empty space in the centre of this piece has been painted a smooth gold, in direct contrast with the rough-hewn alabaster of its external form, creating a clear juxtaposition between raw, natural material and the refinement of art. It demonstrates Kapoor’s understanding of material properties and his ability to transform stone into something that appears both ancient and utterly contemporary - Kapoor himself linked the concept of the void with the idea of a timeless infinity. This particular piece exemplifies what Kapoor calls the "non-object" - something that investigates the liminal space between physical presence and immateriality, "something that is present but absent, empty yet full."

Another alabaster masterpiece from 1999, this smaller-scale work sold at Sotheby's New York in November 2006. At 141.5 × 79.5 × 32.5 cm, it is almost half the size of the gold-centred sculpture from the same year, demonstrating the market's prioritisation of Kapoor's concepts over the size of his work. The work features similar conceptual concerns to its larger counterparts, with a polished concave void set within rough alabaster. The spiritual and metaphysical qualities of these alabaster works contribute significantly to their market value. Their translucent properties create what one critic described as a "dissolving at boundaries," blurring the separation between solid and void. This work's strong performance at auction reflects the growing recognition of Kapoor's alabaster series as a crucial bridge between his earlier pigment works and his later monumental public installations.

This stainless steel reflective work sold at Christie's London in February 2015, achieving exactly double its low estimate of £500,000. The piece belongs to Kapoor's series of concave mirror sculptures that reverse and distort their surroundings, offering viewers an alternative image of themselves and their setting - unlike the direct reflections offered by Kapoor’s Sky Mirror works. Kapoor's reflective works do, however, all transform the passive act of looking into an active engagement with space, forcing viewers to move around the piece to fully experience its perceptual effects. The sculpture’s perfect polished finish required exceptional craftsmanship, with the stainless steel cold-forged in Finland before final polishing in the UK. The market's strong response demonstrates collectors' appreciation for works that exemplify Kapoor's statement that "what we do as artists is mythological, without your involvement as a viewer, there is no story."

This pigment-based work sold at Phillips London in June 2013. The deep blue monochromatic circle represents an evolution of Kapoor's earlier explorations with pure pigment, which began with his breakthrough 1000 Names series in 1979-80. The intense blue creates an impression of bottomless depth, absorbing most of the light that hits it into its matte surface and engaging with Kapoor's recurring theme of the void. While materially different from his alabaster and reflective metal works, this piece demonstrates the conceptual consistency that underpins Kapoor's practice across different media. Its success at auction reflects the market's recognition of Kapoor's ability to create powerful optical effects through seemingly simple forms, giving colour itself a solid shape and presence.

This later stainless steel reflective work sold at Phillips New York in November 2017. At 229.9 x 229.9 x 45.7 cm, it is one of Kapoor’s largest gallery works, its fractured, segmented surface turning the reflected world into a kind of abstract painting. The exact shape of each flat, reflective section deliberately guides the light and the eye, seeming to create a kind of swirling movement, though the sculpture remains still. By 2011, Kapoor had fully established himself as one of the world's leading sculptors, with major public commissions including the ArcelorMittal Orbit, the largest sculpture in the UK, for the London 2012 Olympics. This piece’s exceptional auction result, exceeding its high estimate by 50%, is also reflective of its unique provenance - it was acquired directly from the artist by a prominent Japanese collector, making its sale in 2017 the first opportunity for the public and other collectors to see it.

This aluminium work sold at Christie's London in June 2008. The vibrant red-pink concave disc combines Kapoor’s earlier exploration of pigment and colour with his more recent representation of space through reflective surfaces. The polished, painted surface creates similar perceptual effects to his stainless steel works but with the added dimension of the rich red hue. The piece's successful sale occurred just weeks before the artist's alabaster Untitled (2003) would set his current auction record, also in London. The timing of these sales in mid-2008, just before the global financial crisis, demonstrates the peak of market enthusiasm for Kapoor's work during this period. Despite subsequent market fluctuations, Kapoor's most significant pieces have maintained their value, confirming his status as one of the most commercially important sculptors of his generation.

This copper reflective piece sold at Sotheby's New York in May 2014. It represents Kapoor’s continuing interest in the different optical properties of various reflective materials. The warm metallic hue distinguishes it from his more common stainless steel reflective works, as does the gentle ripple created in its reflection. By 2012, Kapoor had firmly established himself as a blue-chip artist with global recognition, following high-profile public commissions and major retrospectives, including his groundbreaking 2009 exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts - the first time the institution had dedicated its entire space to a living artist. This piece, upon completion, was displayed at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2012. This auction sale, just two years after its creation, coincided with Kapoor’s fledgling use of Vantablack, the darkest material on earth, for which he secured exclusive artistic rights in 2016.

Rounding off this list of Kapoor’s top 10 auction results is an untitled stainless steel sculpture from 1996, which sold at Christie's London in October 2018. It was originally displayed in the Kunst-Station, Cologne, but otherwise remained in private collections. The highly polished concave disc, hovering above a stone plinth, creates an optical illusion where the reflective surface appears to recede into infinite space, demonstrating Kapoor's mastery of fine-tuning the curves and planes of his materials to precisely distort their reflections. In 1996, five years after winning the Turner Prize, Kapoor was just beginning to explore the reflective properties of metal in his work - a skill that, as we’ve seen, would go on to define some of his most famous public and private works.