Last week, rival auction house Sotheby’s sold $750 million worth of art, much of it owned by the late shopping mall magnate A. Alfred Taubman. Nine of his works have sold for more than $30 million, but topping $100 million puts him in the echelon of artists like Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon and Edvard Munch whose works have garnered that much at auction.
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The winning bidder of both pieces remain anonymous. Just before the sale, Christie’s announced that a third party had stepped forward to share the risk – as well as any proceeds above the guaranteed price.
It was purchased by taxi driver turned billionaire Liu Yiqian, one of China’s biggest art collectors, who founded two museums in Shanghai.
Art handlers hang the painting “Nu couch” by artist Amedeo Modigliani’s ahead of the artists muse: a curated evening sale during Christie’s post war and contemporary art sale on October 9, 2015 in London, England.
The previous record for a Modigliani was US$70.7 million set in November 2014 for a sculpture.
A new record was also set for the sale of a work by Jewish pop artist Roy Lichtenstein.
That was right in the middle of the presale estimate of $442 million to $540 million.
The price reached for the shocked looking blonde with sexy red lips smashed the previous record for a Lichtenstein – US$56 million paid for Women with Flowered Hat in 2013. Munch’s 1895 painting, “The Scream”, earned $120 million at an auction in NY in 2012.
Paul Gauguin’s carved wood sculpture of a woman, “Therese” (1902-1903), fetched $30.9-M, surpassing the high estimate of $25-M.The victor was a client of Conor Jordan, Christie’s deputy chairman of Impressionist and modern art in NY. NY dealer Christophe van de Weghe was one of the underbidders on that.
While Picasso is generally regarded as one of, if not the, greatest artist of the 20th Century, Les Femmes d’Alger was not looked upon as one of his greatest works, and it threw the percieved “shalloweness” of the art world into a cold new light.
“She is a woman of incredible elegance and dignity”, Jussi Pylkkanen, Christie’s global president and chief auctioneer, said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg. Those that weren’t as fresh or had the estimates that were “a bit strong” led to the evening’s disappointments, he said. Sotheby’s’ contemporary sale follows on Wednesday.
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The current auction record for a Gauguin painting is $40.3 million.
