Christie's lot page and results story show Dog Painting 17 sold for £3,506,000 with buyer's premium at the London evening sale on 14 October 2026, above £2.5m; no Guardian or BBC report of the sale was found, so Christie's alone settles it.
History. 5 of 10. Kirkeby, Hodgkin, Piene, Artschwager and Polke beat the top estimate. Freud, Immendorff, Paik, Rotella and Sekine sold within it.
Hunch. Christie's says only six of Hockney's more than 40 dog paintings are in private hands and none has been sold at auction before, so the rarity pulls in buyers (Guardian, 26 Sep 2026).
The estimate market resolves on Christie's published result for Dog Painting 17 after the London sale on 14 October 2026: YES if the price with the buyer's fee is more than £2,500,000. An unsold or withdrawn painting resolves NO, and reports in The Guardian and BBC News that evening settle it if the Christie's page is late.
We looked for cases where a work by an artist who had died earlier that year came up for sale for the first time at a London auction in the week of the Frieze art fair. We found fourteen since 2006 and took the ten with the highest estimates. All but one were at Christie's. We compared each price, with fees, against the top of the estimate.