The scene at Sotheby’s during the auction. (Click to enlarge).
Picasso’s 1932 portrait of Marie-Thérèse, Femme Assise Près D’Une Fenêtre, made £28,601,250 to become the top lot at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern sale in London on February 5. The sale brought in £104,404,900. The Surrealist art sale realised £16,670,500 making a combined total of £121,075,400. This is the second highest total for an evening sale in London. It was exceeded only in 2010 when Giacometti’s Walking Man was the star lot.
Egon Schiele’s Lovers – self-portrait with Wally from 1914 made £7,881,250, a record for a work on paper by the artist. It was one of three works by Schiele from the Leopold Museum in Vienna sold to settle a restitution claim. They brought a total of £14,011,750 over an estimate of £9-12 million.
Helena Newman, Chairman, Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art, Europe, commented: “Tonight’s sale – which included museum-quality works and many that have never before appeared at auction, or have been in private collections for many years – drew buyers from across the world. Bidders, both new to the market as well as seasoned buyers, reacted with great enthusiasm, in particular to the selection of Impressionist works that were considered to be the strongest offering in many years.”
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for January 16 and 18, 2013).