# Gilbert & George artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/gilbert-george/
Profile generated: 2026-05-05T06:00:00.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Nationality: British
- Movements: Contemporary Art, Performance Art, Conceptual Art
- Common media: Photography, Photomontage, Performance art, Charcoal on paper, Screen prints and multiples, Postal art

## About Gilbert & George

Gilbert & George are a British artist duo consisting of Gilbert Proesch, born in 1943 in the Italian Dolomites, and George Passmore, born in 1942 in Plymouth, England. They met in 1967 while studying sculpture at St. Martin's School of Art in London and have worked as a single entity ever since, famously declaring, 'We are two people, but one artist.' Emerging alongside Pop, Minimalist, and Conceptual art, they developed a wholly distinctive practice grounded in the concept of 'living sculpture'—treating their own appearances, routines, and conversations as the artwork itself. Over more than five decades they have produced brightly coloured, large-format photo-based works, performances, charcoal drawings, postal editions, and graphic pieces that address urban life, identity, sexuality, religion, and mortality. In 2017 the pair celebrated fifty years of collaboration, and in 2023 they opened the Gilbert & George Centre in London's East End to present rotating exhibitions of their work.

## Common works and media

Large-format colour photographic works and photomontages are the most frequently encountered Gilbert & George pieces in auction and appraisal contexts. Other common formats include charcoal-on-paper drawings from the early 1970s, screen prints and graphic multiples, postcard and postal art editions, book works, and early performance documentation. Subject matter ranges widely across urban London street scenes, self-portraits of the artists in their signature suits, religious and bodily imagery, text-based compositions, and commentary on social and political themes.

## Market and appraisal context

Gilbert & George have a deep and well-documented secondary market spanning more than two decades, with 382 auction lots recorded (232 with published prices) between June 2001 and May 2026. The price distribution is wide: realised prices range from $10 at the low end for unsigned ephemera and exhibition posters to $1,273,250 at the top for major large-format photographic works. The median price sits at approximately $500, and the interquartile range runs from $150 to $3,500, indicating that the majority of lots passing through auction are small-scale multiples, prints, posters, and works on paper rather than the large-scale photomontages for which the duo is best known. The top tier—works at Sotheby's and Christie's—has achieved six-figure results, including £345,300 for 'Bloody Life No. 9' (Sotheby's, 2007) and £52,500 for 'Holy Piss' (Christie's, 2017). Ten or more distinct auction houses appear in the record, including Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips, Bonhams, Forum Auctions, Roseberys, and several continental European houses, demonstrating broad geographic liquidity across the UK, continental Europe, and the US. However, volume has contracted recently: 32 priced lots in the most recent twelve-month period compared with 76 in the prior twelve months, which may reflect market cyclicality, consignment timing, or a shift toward private sales.

## Auction-house-backed market evidence

Gilbert & George have a deep and well-documented secondary market spanning more than two decades, with 382 auction lots recorded (232 with published prices) between June 2001 and May 2026. The price distribution is wide: realised prices range from $10 at the low end for unsigned ephemera and exhibition posters to $1,273,250 at the top for major large-format photographic works. The median price sits at approximately $500, and the interquartile range runs from $150 to $3,500, indicating that the majority of lots passing through auction are small-scale multiples, prints, posters, and works on paper rather than the large-scale photomontages for which the duo is best known. The top tier—works at Sotheby's and Christie's—has achieved six-figure results, including £345,300 for 'Bloody Life No. 9' (Sotheby's, 2007) and £52,500 for 'Holy Piss' (Christie's, 2017). Ten or more distinct auction houses appear in the record, including Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips, Bonhams, Forum Auctions, Roseberys, and several continental European houses, demonstrating broad geographic liquidity across the UK, continental Europe, and the US. However, volume has contracted recently: 32 priced lots in the most recent twelve-month period compared with 76 in the prior twelve months, which may reflect market cyclicality, consignment timing, or a shift toward private sales.

### Appraisal notes

Appraisily would use the 382-lot auction dataset as a comparable-sales foundation, filtering by medium, dimensions, edition size, date of execution, series, and auction house tier to identify the most relevant comparables for a specific work. For a credible appraisal, the following must be documented alongside the auction data: high-resolution photographs of the work's front, back, edges, and any signatures or edition stamps; exact dimensions and medium (e.g., gelatin silver print, chromogenic print, photogravure, screen print, charcoal on paper); edition number and total edition size; condition report addressing surface scratching, fading, foxing, mount burn, or other photographic-media issues; provenance chain including gallery invoices, exhibition labels, and collection stamps; and publication history including catalogue raisonné references, exhibition checklists, or monograph reproductions. The extreme price dispersion—roughly five orders of magnitude between the low end and the auction record—means that broad range estimates are unreliable; only close comparable analysis grounded in the specific work's characteristics produces defensible valuations.

### Valuation factors

- Series and period: early Charcoal on Paper Sculptures and Postal Sculptures (late 1960s–1970s) are scarce and tend to attract specialist interest; later large-format photo works from named series are more common but vary widely in price depending on the series.
- Edition size and number: many photo-based works are produced in editions. Lower edition numbers within a run and smaller total edition sizes generally command higher prices.
- Dimensions and scale: large-scale photomontages regularly achieve five- and six-figure results at major houses, while small prints, posters, and ephemera typically trade in the tens to low hundreds of dollars or euros.
- Auction-house tier: results at Christie's and Sotheby's represent the top of the market; regional houses (Forum Auctions, Roseberys, Bernaerts, AaG) typically handle smaller works, multiples, and posters at lower price points.
- Condition: photographic surfaces are vulnerable to fading, scratching, moisture damage, and colour shift. Condition reports and conservation history are material to value.
- Provenance and exhibition history: works with documented gallery provenance, museum exhibition records, or catalogue raisonné citations carry stronger attribution and higher valuations.
- Signatures and gallery stamps: dual signatures and authentic gallery or publisher stamps support attribution and are expected for editioned works.
- Currency and geography: the dataset includes GBP, USD, and EUR results across UK, continental European, and US houses. Currency and buyer-premium conventions affect comparability.

### Collector notes

- If you own a Gilbert & George work, the single most important step before seeking an appraisal or listing for sale is to locate and photograph any edition numbering, signatures, gallery stamps, or publisher marks—these details dramatically narrow the comparable set and directly affect value. Small prints, posters, and ephemera (under approximately $500 at median) represent the bulk of the auction market and are straightforward to consign at regional houses. Larger photomontages and early-period works should be directed to major houses (Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips) or specialist contemporary-art dealers, where the buyer pool for five- and six-figure works is concentrated. Auction volume has declined from 76 priced lots to 32 over the past year, so timing and house selection may materially affect the result. If you are considering a purchase, verify edition details, request a condition report, and confirm that the provenance is documented—particularly for works attributed to early periods where forgery risk and misattribution are higher.

### Market caveats

- Price data covers 232 of 382 recorded lots; 150 lots lack published realised prices and are excluded from distribution statistics.
- The maximum recorded price of $1,273,250 likely reflects a converted-currency equivalent and may not correspond to a single lot visible in the recent-lot sample; top-tier results at Christie's and Sotheby's in the sample (£345,300 and £52,500) confirm that major works achieve six-figure prices but the precise lot achieving the maximum is not individually identified here.
- Recent-lot volume (32 in the past 12 months vs 76 in the prior 12 months) shows a year-on-year decline; this may reflect consignment cycles rather than a structural market shift.
- The majority of recent lots are small-scale prints, posters, and multiples from regional European and UK houses; they are not representative of the top end of the market for large-format photographic works.
- Gilbert & George have produced work across a very wide range of formats, editions, and series over more than five decades. General price statistics should not be applied to any individual work without medium-specific, period-specific, and edition-specific comparable analysis.
- Auction-house names in the dataset are as reported by the auction-record feed and may reflect parent-company, subsidiary, or rebranded entities.
- Currency conversions (GBP, EUR, USD) in the distribution statistics are approximate and do not account for buyer's premium variations across houses and jurisdictions.

### Market evidence sources

- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/api/scraper-search/artists/gilbert-george/seo-profile?recentLimit=24&relatedLimit=0
- Invaluable / Sotheby's: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-gilbert-george-bloody-life-no-9-four-hand-dyed-gelatin-silver-prints-21-c-vlel2w3atw
- Invaluable / Christie's: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-gilbert-george-b-1943-b-1942-holy-piss-signed-titled-and-dated-76-c-c57427a836
- Invaluable / Tate Ward Auctions: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-gilbert-george-british-duo-the-banners-2015-16-ten-works-53-c-653a5cf106
- Invaluable / Piasa: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-gilbert-george-gilbert-prousch-b-1943-and-george-passmore-b-1942-self-portrait-1995-259-c-a104ed38a5

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist identity research with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. Information on this page is drawn from museum collections, library authority files, and other published sources cited above.

## Sources

- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/7496
- Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/gilbert-george-1163
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n98079330
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500055847
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/96055065/
- RKD: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/31608
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q684974
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_%26_George