Pablo Picasso
Le Sauvetage
Painted in 1932
Picasso’s Le Sauvetage sold for $31.5 million at Sotheby’s in New York last night. It was the top lot in an Impressionist and Modern art auction that achieved $219 million. The work more than doubled the price it made at Sotheby’s in 2004. Asian collectors contributed 30% of the auction total and bought eight lots for a total of $63.9 million. Among these were Henri Matisse’s La Séance du matin ($19,205,000), Claude Monet’s Le Pont japonais ($15,845,000) and Alberto Giacometti’s La Place ($13,045,000). The impact of Asian collectors was felt throughout the sale.
Le Sauvetage, which had a high estimate of $18 million, was the subject of a prolonged bidding battle. Alberto Giacometti’s La Place, his first multi-figural sculpture, made $13,045,000 and Femme de Venise V from the collection of Jan Krugier made $8,789,000. All five works by Giacometti were sold, for a total of $35.1 million. Three works by Monet totalled $28 million. Monet’s Sur la Falaise à Pourville, sold to benefit the Acquisitions Fund of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, made $8,229,000, surpassing its high estimate of $7 million. Over the last three years, property from American museums has outperformed high estimates by a combined $100 million at Sotheby’s.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for March 30, 2014).