Claude Monet's L’Entreé de Giverny en Hiver made a record for a snowscape by the artist.
Klimt's Lakeshore with Birches failed to get a bid and sold privately immediately after the auction for £5.6million.
There was an auction record for a Monet snowscape at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern sale in London on February 8. But over ambitious estimates were blamed for the failure of a Klimt and a Dali to sell.
Instead the top lot at a sale which brought in £78.8 million was for an 1885 snow scene at Giverny by Claude Monet. “L’Entree de Giverny en hiver” sold for £7.3 million over an estimate of £4.5-5.5 million.
There was disappointment that Gustav Klimt’s recently rediscovered 1901 “Lakeshore with Birches” failed to attract a single bid. It was estimated at £6-8 million. The work was quickly sold afterwards for £5.6 million. Dali’s 1946 “Oasis” had a top estimate of £6 million and failed to sell.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s Das Boskett, Albertplatz in Dresden made £7,321,250: George Braque’s L’Oliveraie made £5,081,250 and Fernand Leger’s La Jeune Fille a l’echelle made £3,961,250. Works by Edouard Vuillard, Henry Moore and Alexej von Jawlensky made £3,401,250, £3,289,250 and £3,065,250 respectively. Die Elektrische by Otto Dix made £2,953,250, almost three times its estimate.
A group of 14 Surrealist works achieved a combined total of £16,083,000. Giorgio de Chirico’s Ettore e Andromaca made £2,841,250 and Yves Tanguy’s Deux fois du noir made £2, 505,250. The auction was was 76.9% sold by lot and 76% sold by value (41 of 53 lots were sold). (See post on antiquesandartireland.com for January 10, 2012.)
When Sotheby’s day sale concluded on February 9 with sales of £17.1 million it brought the cumulative total for Sotheby’s February sales of Impressionist & Modern Art to £96,087,750.