# Marc Quinn artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/marc-quinn/
Profile generated: 2026-05-04T03:32:00.000Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1964-01-08
- Nationality: British
- Movements: Young British Artists (YBA)
- Common media: sculpture, installation, painting, photography, drawing

## About Marc Quinn

Marc Quinn (born 8 January 1964, London) is a British contemporary artist best known for sculpture, installation, painting, and photography. A prominent member of the Young British Artists generation, Quinn has spent three decades examining what it means to be human, working across subjects that include the body, genetics, identity, ecology, and the boundary between nature and artifice. He is recognized for his materially inventive practice — employing frozen blood, bread, preserved flowers, marble, bronze, and stainless steel — to question perception, mortality, and self-image. Rather than attending art school, Quinn studied history and art history at the University of Cambridge, an academic grounding that shapes the conceptual depth of his output. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Tate, the National Portrait Gallery in London, Fondation Beyeler, Fondazione Prada, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2024 he presented Light into Life, a large-scale outdoor sculpture installation at Kew Gardens. His art is held in major public and private collections worldwide.

## Common works and media

Quinn's output spans bronze and stainless-steel sculpture, carved marble portraiture, oil and acrylic painting, iris-print and pigment-print photography, and mixed-media installations. Recurring subjects include life-size and enlarged flower forms (especially orchids), figurative and portrait heads, body-part sculptures, and abstract canvases from his History Paintings series. Editioned prints, multiples, and limited-edition photographs also circulate regularly on the secondary market.

## Market and appraisal context

Marc Quinn maintains a deep and liquid secondary market spanning more than two decades of auction activity. The Appraisily auction-record index traces 564 catalogued lots from February 2001 through April 2026, of which 327 carry a recorded realized price. His work sells at the highest tier of the contemporary art market — Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips, and Bonhams handle the top end — while mid-tier houses such as Roseberys, Forum Auctions, Dreweatts 1759, Chiswick Auctions, and Artcurial provide regular liquidity for prints, multiples, and works on paper. Price dispersion is wide: the recorded minimum is $12 and the maximum is $1,600,000, with an interquartile range of $1,440–$50,000 and a median of $8,750. This spread reflects the breadth of Quinn's output — from small editioned prints that trade in the hundreds to large-scale unique sculptures that command six and seven figures. Liquidity dipped modestly in the most recent 12-month window (22 priced lots versus 30 in the prior 12 months), but the overall volume and house diversity indicate a healthy, ongoing market with no single auction channel dominating.

## Auction-house-backed market evidence

Marc Quinn maintains a deep and liquid secondary market spanning more than two decades of auction activity. The Appraisily auction-record index traces 564 catalogued lots from February 2001 through April 2026, of which 327 carry a recorded realized price. His work sells at the highest tier of the contemporary art market — Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips, and Bonhams handle the top end — while mid-tier houses such as Roseberys, Forum Auctions, Dreweatts 1759, Chiswick Auctions, and Artcurial provide regular liquidity for prints, multiples, and works on paper. Price dispersion is wide: the recorded minimum is $12 and the maximum is $1,600,000, with an interquartile range of $1,440–$50,000 and a median of $8,750. This spread reflects the breadth of Quinn's output — from small editioned prints that trade in the hundreds to large-scale unique sculptures that command six and seven figures. Liquidity dipped modestly in the most recent 12-month window (22 priced lots versus 30 in the prior 12 months), but the overall volume and house diversity indicate a healthy, ongoing market with no single auction channel dominating.

### Appraisal notes

An Appraisily appraisal for a Marc Quinn work would draw on the 564-lot auction-record index to identify the most relevant comparable sales — filtered by medium, series, scale, edition size, and date range — then adjust for the specific work's condition, provenance, signature, dimensions, and any exhibition or publication history. For prints and multiples, edition number and total edition size are critical data points that can shift value meaningfully within the same title. For sculptural works in unconventional materials (frozen blood, preserved flowers), a condition report addressing material stability is essential. The appraiser would weight recent results at comparable-tier auction houses most heavily, while using the full 25-year price history to establish long-term market trajectory and volatility.

### Valuation factors

- Series identity: works from the Self (frozen blood head) series and large-scale flower sculptures consistently achieve the highest prices; prints from Eye of History, Winter Garden, and At the Far Edges of the Universe series trade in the mid-hundreds to low thousands.
- Medium and material: cast-lead and bronze sculptures (e.g., Emotional Detox at £7,620, Christie's, March 2026) command more than prints and works on paper from the same period.
- Scale and edition: unique works and low-numbered editions from smaller print runs carry a premium; prints from editions of 69 (e.g., Eye of History portfolio, Paragon Press) are more accessible.
- Provenance and exhibition history: prior inclusion in museum or institutional exhibitions strengthens value.
- Condition: Quinn's use of unconventional organic materials (frozen blood, preserved flowers) introduces conservation risk that can materially affect value; works in stable media (bronze, marble, pigment print) are less exposed.
- Auction-house tier: results at Christie's and Sotheby's establish ceiling benchmarks; mid-tier houses provide comparable-floor data for standard-edition prints and smaller works.
- Market depth: 564 catalogued lots with 327 priced results provide a substantial comparable-sale pool for appraisal.

### Collector notes

- Entry point: editioned prints (Eye of History, Winter Garden, At the Far Edges of the Universe) have recently traded between £320 and £2,200 at Roseberys, Christie's, and Forum Auctions, offering an accessible way into Quinn's market.
- Mid-range: unique works on paper and smaller sculptures (e.g., Garden II at £2,400, Study II for Fear of Fear at £2,794, Emotional Detox cast lead at £7,620) occupy the $2,000–$10,000 band and appear regularly.
- Upper tier: large-scale sculptures and signature-series works from Self or oversized flower installations have historically realized prices up to $1,600,000; these are typically offered in Post-War and Contemporary Art evening sales at Christie's or Sotheby's.
- Liquidity is strong: 10+ distinct auction houses have sold Quinn lots, so resale channels are broad.
- Print editions numbered 33/69 (as seen in the Eye of History portfolio at Bonhams, June 2025) suggest that comparable editioned works should be checked for number position when assessing relative value.
- Currency awareness: results are split between GBP and USD; convert carefully when comparing across houses.

### Market caveats

- The Appraisily auction-record index aggregates public auction feeds and may not capture private sales, gallery primary-market pricing, or all online-only results.
- Some recent lots (e.g., Phillips June 2010, Christie's March 2026 Pride, Christie's September 2025 Plate 4 and Plate 6, Bonhams June 2025 Eye of History portfolio, Forum Auctions September 2025) show null priceRealised, indicating either unsold lots or results not yet reported; these are excluded from price statistics.
- Quinn's unconventional materials — frozen blood, preserved organic matter — create conservation requirements that standard auction records do not quantify; a qualified conservator's assessment should accompany any appraisal of such works.
- The 25-year auction window (2001–2026) captures most of Quinn's secondary-market career but predates his earliest Self casts (1991); very early works may have thin comparable coverage.
- Price statistics (min $12, median $8,750, max $1,600,000) span an extremely wide range because they mix unique sculptures, editioned prints, and small-format works on paper; segment-specific comparables are essential for any appraisal.

### Market evidence sources

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- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-marc-quinn-golden-future-2009-420-c-1424121961
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-marc-quinn-garden-ii-2000-301-c-e3575a28e9
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-marc-quinn-born-1964-the-eye-of-history-the-complete-portfolio-comprising-eight-etchings-in-colours-2013-on-hahnemuhle-bright-white-paper-each-signed-recto-and-numbered-33-69-verso-published-by-paragon-press-london-the-full-sheets-fr-176-c-c9348c3a8e
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-marc-quinn-untitled-285-c-3644176a4e
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-marc-quinn-b-1964-eye-of-history-152-c-0ed914aeb8
- undefined: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot-marc-quinn-burning-world-207-c-a3a41e4bdb

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist identity research from museum records, library authority files, and official sources with publicly available auction records, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. This page is informational and does not constitute an appraisal or valuation.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q355811
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Quinn
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/96063389/
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no98128088
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/6908
- Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/marc-quinn-2600
- RKD (Netherlands Institute for Art History): https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/131660
- Marc Quinn: http://www.marcquinn.com