Shanghai: A taxi driver turned financier, Chinese tycoon Liu Yiqian has stunned the art world with his record-setting purchases, the latest a famed Modigliani nude costing more than $170 million.
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It was the second highest price ever achieved at auction for a work or art, Christie’s said.
Amedeo Modigliani’s “Nu couché” (1917-18), which caused a scandal when it was first exhibited in Paris, was sold at Christie’s as part of an “Artist’s Muse” themed auction.
That purchase broke a record for a Chinese work at an worldwide auction that Mr Liu had set only months earlier when he snapped up a tiny Ming dynasty porcelain cup for $36 million.
The top-selling painting from the Sotheby’s auction was “La Gommeuse”, a 1901 nude by Picasso that sold for $67.5 million.
Lichtenstein’s comic book-style “Nurse” painting fetched $95.4 million, also an artist auction record. He used his points to fly with his family to NY, where, according to Bloomberg, Liu drew attention for posing for a photo in his underwear in their St. Regis hotel room, assuming the pose of a Tibetan yogi statue he planned to bid for at an upcoming Christie’s NY auction. In that sale, 97 per cent of the lots sold, compared with 71 per cent at Monday night’s sale. Picasso still holds the record price for paintings at auction.
NEW YORK, N.Y. – Iconic works by Andy Warhol, Louise Bourgeois and Lucian Freud were among the post-war and contemporary artworks that garnered $332 million at an auction in New York.
The most expensive Chinese painting ever sold outside of China, this 600-year-old album of Buddhist art and calligraphy was snapped up at Sotheby’s NY by Lui in March. The final US$170.4 million price for Nu Coucheincluded Christie’s’ commission of just over 12 per cent.
The total revenue of the sale was $491.4 million falling just short of the house’s estimate of $442 million and $540 million. “It has not been on the market for 100 years”, said auctioneer and Christie’s Global President Jussi Pylkkanen.
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Bidding in the packed NY salesroom started at $75m, already more than Modigliani’s auction record of $70.7m, and ticked upwards in $5m increments before an unidentified telephone bidder prevailed at $152m. Later owners included John Quinn and Lillie Bliss, one of the original founders of the Museum of Modern Art in NY. Modigliani’s signature work was sold by Laura Mattioli Rossi, who had been guaranteed a sale price of at least 100 million dollars.
