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Sotheby’s modern art sale on Monday evening saw extensive bidding and strong prices for works by artists such as Claude Monet and Mark Rothko, but in the end, the New York auction revealed a mixed picture of collector appetite as it achieved US$190.4 million, or US$223.3 million, with fees.
The final total, before fees, reached above the low estimate for the sale of US$179 million. But the estimated result—which also is before fees—didn’t account for the withdrawal of seven lots ahead of the auction that altogether could have brought in another US$19.3 million. Two final two works in the 33-lot auction didn’t find buyers.
The auction took place less than an hour after Sotheby’s sold a 1962 Ferrari 330 LM / 250 GTO, chassis 3765 for US$51.7 million, with fees, which the auction house said marks the highest value for a Ferrari at a public auction. The price—below a US$60 million estimate—was also the second highest price for a car at auction, Sotheby’s said.
The previous auction record for a Ferrari was US$48.4 million set in 2018 at Sotheby, while the highest price for any car was US$143 million, set for a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupé at RM Sotheby’s last year.
The highest price of the modern art sale was US$26.8 million, or about US$30.8 million with fees, for Monet’s Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, temps couvert, 1891, which was won by a collector on the phone with Wendy Lin, Sotheby’s chairman in Asia, after about a minute. Peupliers is one of 24 paintings the artist created of a grouping of poplars planted on the banks of the Epte river about two kilometers from his home in Giverny, according to Sotheby’s. The result was just below a low estimate of US$30 million.
Another work by Monet generated far more interest. Le Moulin de Limetz (The Mill at Limetz), 1888, sold for US$22 million, or US$25.6 million with fees, after more than seven minutes of volleying. The winning bidder was on the phone with Simon Shaw, Sotheby’s vice chairman of fine art.
The painting, which was estimated to sell for between US$12 million and US$18 million, had been owned by the descendants of influential Chicago collectors, Bertha and Potter Palmer and was in the family for more than 130 years. It had been guaranteed with an irrevocable bid, ensuring it would sell.
The same collector on the phone with Shaw won another round of bidding soon after for Camille Pissarro’s Le Louvre, matin, printemps, 1902, with the price of US$3.4 million, nearly US$4.2 million with fees, more than double a high estimate.
A Rothko work-on-paper in blue-and-green tones from 1968 also generated significant interest. The painting sold to a buyer in the saleroom for double a high estimate at US$20.5 million, US$25.6 million with fees, after more than five minutes of bidding. Proceeds from the sale, an auction record for a Rothko work-on-paper, will benefit the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis, Tenn.
Another intense bidding round was sparked by Marc Chagall’s Au-dessus de la ville, 1924, before it sold to a collector in Asia on the phone with Jen Hua, Sotheby’s deputy chairman for the region for US$13.3 million, or US$15.6 million with fees, a result within estimates.
According to Sotheby’s, Asian collectors bought more than 20% of art in the sale by value, including Monet’s poplars, the Chagall, and Paul Klee’s Fenster im garten, which sold just under the low end of an estimate range for US$580,000, or US$736,600 with fees.
A featured lot of the evening,
Pablo Picasso’s
Compotier et guitare, 1932, which was guaranteed by a third party, generated far fewer sparks, although it still sold for US$21 million, nearly US$23.5 million with fees. The painting, with what Sotheby’s described as coded references to his muse Marie-Thérèse Walter, was expected to realize in the region of US$25 million. Compotier et guitare was last sold at auction in 2000 at Sotheby’s to a Swiss collector for US$9.9 million; the current seller bought the painting for an undisclosed price in 2004.
Another Picasso, an early analytical cubist work from 1909 titled Buste de femme, which was also guaranteed by a third party, sold for US$12 million, or $13.6 million with fees, below a US$18 million low estimate.
Last week, Sotheby’s sold Picasso’s Femme à la montre from the Emily Fisher Landau collection for US$139.4 million, the second-highest auction price for a work by the artist.
The auction marked the first of three evening sales at Sotheby’s this week in New York, following the Fisher Landau evening auction that realized US$406 million last Wednesday. The auction house holds its ultra-contemporary “The Now” and its contemporary sales on Wednesday evening.
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