Étoile Bleue by Miro sold for a record price at Sotheby’s. (Click on image to enlarge).
THERE was a record for Joan Miró at Sotheby’s in London this evening when a 1927 work Peinture (Étoile Bleue) sold for £23,561,250. This evening’s record price – the highest price for any work of art sold in London thus far this year – coincides with a moment of unprecedented demand for Surrealist art. In the past year there has been records for Dali, Magritte and Paul Delvaux. The previous record of £16.8 million for a Miro was estabished in London just four months ago.
Peinture (Étoile Bleue) is from Miró’s seminal dream paintings cycle. There are examples at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Fondation Beyeler in Basle, the Tate in London and the Metropolitan in New York. The luscious blue palette he used influenced both Yves Klein and Mark Rothko. The work was pursued by four determined bidders. In 2007 it sold at auction of £8.35 million.
Helena Newman, Chairman of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Department, Europe, said “Peinture (Étoile Bleue) is one of Miró’s most important paintings, effortlessly bridging the transition between figurative and abstract art. His works from this period are supremely modern, timeless and of great universal appeal, making this precisely the type of painting that today’s international collectors are prepared to lock horns over, as they did this evening. ”
UPDATE: Sotheby’s London sales of Impressionist & Modern Art this week achieved a combined total of £89.2m, bringing the total for Impressionist & Modern Art worldwide at Sotheby’s so far this year to £449m, a 12% increase on the same period last year. This is the second highest year-to-date total for worldwide sales of Impressionist & Modern Art in the company’s history. Bidders from 38 countries participated in the sales this week.