An arresting pop art work by Roy Lichtenstein, Nurse, from 1964, also defied expectations, selling for $US95.4 million, with fees, to another phone buyer, well above its $US80 million estimate – despite the lack of a “speech” or “thought bubble” that typically drives up the price of Lichtenstein works. The 1990 work replicates a catchphrase from the 1957 film noir “Sweet Smell of Success: “The cat’s in the bag, and the bags in the river”, which the artist shortened to “Cats In Bag Bags In River” on bold lettering”.
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Pablo Picasso’s “Homme a L’epee”, left, and Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture “Femme Debout”, are shown installed among master works at Christie’s for the upcoming NY evening art auctions of impressionist, modern and post-war art, during a press preview, Friday October 30, 2015, in NY.
Amedeo Modigliani’s 1917 “Nu Couche (Reclining Nude)” stretched to an artist record price of $170 million (with fees), the second highest price ever paid at auction for an artwork (Picasso leads at $179 million).
Christie’s said the painting caused a scandal when Modigliani exhibited it almost 100 years ago in Paris.
The painting, which portrays a nude dark-haired woman lying down on a red couch, was initially targeted to sell for around $100 million.
The previous auction record for a Modigliani was $71 million.
This set a world record for the artist and achieving the second highest price ever garnered for a work of art at auction.
Modigliani’s painting from 1917- 1918, was sold to Liu Yiqian and his wife Wang Wei, founders of Shanghai’s private art museums-the Long Museum Pudong and Long Museum West Bund.
The auction featured works by a range of artists including Lichtenstein, Amedeo Modigliani and Paul Gauguin and expected to see artist auction records set. Another artist record, for a Gauguin sculpture, was broken when “Thérèse” sold for just under $31 million, beating the $25 million estimate. – Bought Vincent van Gogh masterpiece at Sotheby’s in NY for nearly $62 million in May 2014. Modigliani wouldn’t make it into my Top 20.
However, the fact that works of art are being sold for astronomical sums doesn’t necessarily justify their prices. Sotheby’s last week sold $377 million in its own hybrid evening sale, “Masterworks”, from the collection of its former chairman A. Alfred Taubman.
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The total revenue of the sale was $491.4 million falling just short of the house’s estimate of $442 million and $540 million.
