A copy of Catherine the Great’s bedside table.

Sotheby’s first raunchy auction: Erotic: Passion & Desire sale to feature explicit paintings, photographs and sculptures

This saucy sale includes explicit paintings, photographs, sculptures and artefacts dating from the 1st century AD, with reserve prices starting at £200…

By Kate Gordon
10 February 2017

Pre-sale exhibition opens February 11 at Sotheby’s New Bond Street Galleries. The auction will be held on February 16.

Auction house Sotheby’s is holding its first ever sale of erotic art.

Erotic: Passion & Desire is an at-times very raunchy romp through the history of eroticism. As you wander the pre-sale exhibition of explicit paintings, photographs, sculptures and artefacts, it becomes clear there is little new on today’s erotica menu.

For those seeking instruction, all manner of intimate acts are depicted on anything that can be designed, carved, embellished or viewed. Unsurprisingly, a great many items are listed anonymously as “Property of a Gentleman” with no further clue as to their sellers.

The lots date from the 1st century AD, with reserve prices starting at £200. Artists whose work can be seen include Antony Gormley, Ettore Sottsass, Robert Mapplethorpe, Helmut Newton, Egon Schiele, Lucian Freud and Picasso.

DON’T MISS this copy of Catherine the Great’s bedside table.

The original was destroyed in a fire, but photographs of it were taken in 1941 by Wehrmacht soldiers and still exist. According to some sources, the cabinet was placed in the Russian empress’s private apartments at Gatchina Palace, while according to others, the table stood in one of the palaces of Tsarskoe Selo, on the outskirts of St Petersburg. The reserve price is £15,000.