Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Tête sold for £4,450,500. Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2015.
Claude Monet (1840-1926) Iris mauves Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2015
Claude Monet’s Iris mauves was the top lot at Christie’s Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale in London tonight. It made £10,834,500 at an auction that brought in £71,461,000. Sell-through rates were 84% by lot and 92% by value. In total, 24 works of art sold for over £1 million and 29 for over $1 million. Bidders from 32 countries across 5 continents competed in the room and on the telephone,
Jay Vincze, International Director said: “This evening’s sale of Impressionist & Modern Art saw notable demand for highly covetable works by the masters of late 19th and 20th century art, led by Claude Monet’s remarkable ‘Iris mauves’. Once again, this auction attracted global participation from bidders around the world, further evidencing the deep international demand for the category witnessed in our New York Sales in May. This resulted in strong prices across the full breadth of the category, from the birth of Impressionism – illustrated by the rare 1872 work by Alfred Sisley – to the energy of the late 1969 portrait by Pablo Picasso. For the second year, this Evening Sale marks the start of a week of ‘Impressionist & Modern Art’ and ‘Modern British & Irish Art’ auctions at Christie’s London, collectively presenting new and established buyers with opportunities across price levels.”