Chinese collectors have paid $170.4 million for Amedeo Modigliani’s Nu Couché in an auction at Christie’s NY, making it the second most expensive artwork ever sold and only the 10th to reach a nine-figure sale price.
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When the painting was exhibited during Modigliani’s first and only show in Paris, the police were summoned by a crowd outraged at the nudity it portrayed, according to Christie’s. It depicts an unknown nude model reclining on a crimson couch and blue cushion.
A Courbet “Femme Nue Couchee” sold for $15.29 million – four times higher than the artist’s previous record of $3.74 million.
Another highlight was a work in wood by Paul Gauguin, Therese, which fetched US$30.97 million, setting a new world auction record for a sculpture by the French artist.
Roy Lichtenstein’s “Nurse”, not seen on the market for 20 years, sold for $95,365,000 at the same Monday night auction as “Nu Couche”.
According to reports, the domestic and worldwide art market from 2004 to 2016 has been dominated by just 16 art-hungry Chinese billionaires such as Wanda’s Chairman who bought a Picasso for $28.2 million and Wang Zhongjun who bought a Van Gogh for $62 million followed by a $29.9 million Picasso. – Purchased a Tibetan embroidered silk Thangka for $45 million at an auction in November 2015.
Modigliani’s result was not large, Artnet noted: he died of tuberculosis at age 35, in 1920, having finished only 350 paintings in a career that was mostly unsuccessful. The autumn auctions continue on Tuesday with Christie’s’ sale featuring works from the red-hot post-war and contemporary art category. In the end, Liu scored the sensuous Modigliani nude, with the biggest bid in the art world since a Picasso went for $179 million in May.
Paul Gauguin’s rosewood carved “Thérèse” soared to an auction record for the artist’s sculpture at $30 million.
The portrait’s first owner was Henri Matisse, who paid 200 francs for it in 1900. The museum was founded by Liu Yiqian. “A stand-off at the $150 million mark of bidding had the auctioneer laughing when he thought he heard “$170 million”, to be told the bidder actually said “one second” while considering a next move. Christie’s said interest in Picasso’s late period musketeer portraits has grown dramatically in recent years.
Also of interest are two works by Lucian Freud.
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Christie’s has jammed its Impressionist, modern and contemporary auctions into a single week, a strategy that worked for the company in May when it walked away with US$1.7 billion, nearly twice rival Sotheby’s tally.
