Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), Composition No. III (Composition with Red, Blue, Yellow and Black), 1929.
Piet Mondrian’s Composition No. III (Composition with Red, Blue, Yellow and Black) was the top lot at Christie’s Impressionist and Modern evening auction in New York last night. It sold for $50,565,000 in a sale which realized $202,608,000. This brings the running total for this week’s sales at Christie’s to a truly staggering $1,678,763,000. Day and online sales are to be concluded late today.
Amadeo Modigliani (1884-1920) – Beatrice Hastings painting in 1916 sold for $16,069,000.
Bidders from 34 countries competed in the room and on the phone for works by Impressionist and Modern masters, including Piet Mondrian, Chaïm Soutine, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani and Fernand Léger. Bidding on Modern works was particularly active, a testament to the energy brought to the market by a new breed of crossover collectors.
Fernand Leger’s Le Corsage Rouge sold for $16,965,000; a portrait of Beatrice Hastings by Modigliani made $16,069,000; Monet’s Les Meules a Giverny made $16,405,000; La Communiante (La Mariee) by Chaim Soutine made $15,621,000 and Trois Danseuses by Degas made $11,925,000.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for April 20 and March 16, 2015).