Jack Butler Yeats – A Storm / Gaillshíon (1936) Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd. UPDATE: THIS MADE £165,100
At auction for the first time this painting by Yeats will lead Christie’s day sale of Modern British and Irish art in London on March 19. A Storm/Gaillshíon depicts a young man seated on a bench at the side of a sandy pathway overlooking the sea. According to the artist, this scene refers to no particular, identifiable place, but rather is intended to be indicative of a typical Irish coastal scene, a familiar landscape visible throughout the island. The secondary title of the work, the Irish word Gaillshíon, conjures a rich impression of the atmospheric conditions of the day, suggesting the coastline is being buffeted by rough, blustery weather. The estimate is £100,000-£150,000.
Irish art in the sale includes work by Yeats, Henry and Roderic O’Conor. Also at auction for the first time is Lavery’s After Breakfast, Tangier, which features in the evening sale on March 18. The estimate is £180,000-£250,000.
Paul Henry – Digging Potatoes, Achill Island, Co. Mayo, 1916-19(£85,000-£120,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE £107,950
There was a new world record for Henry Moore at Christie’s London 20/21 evening sale when King and Queen sold for £26,345,000. This was 76% above the high estimate. The result came after a bidding battle that went on for almost eight minutes with six bidders in the room. It is the highest selling lot of the London season. The sale generated a total of £114,175,900 a 39% increase on the total achieved last year, with 92% of lots sold by lot and 98% by value. Three evening sales brought in £197,472,600, up 52% on last year.
The Art of the Surreal Evening Sale, celebrating its 25th edition this season was 100% sold by lot and value and generated a total of £42,978,950. It set two significant world auction records: Dorothea Tanning’s Children’s Games (1942) realised £4,686,000, while Toyen’s Le devenir de la liberté (1946) achieved £3,710,000.
Modern Visionaries – The Roger and Josette Vanthournout Collection made £40,317,750, selling 97% by lot and 94% by value. The three evening sales generated £197,472,600.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for February 13, 2026)
WILLIAM SCOTT, R.A. (1913-1989) – Orange Still Life with Figure. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £247,650
William Scott’s Orange Still Life with Figure dates to 1956/7 and comes up at Christie’s Modern British and Irish Art evening sale in London on March 18. The oil on canvas is from an American collection and estimated at £50,000-£350,000. The auction is led by Frank Auerbach’s Christmas Tree at Mornington Crescent (2004–05) described as a triumphant celebration of paint’s power to capture a landscape rich in memory. The estimate is £1.5 million – £2 million. There are 26 lots in the sale.
Wassily Kandinsky – Le rond rouge (The red circle) (1939). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £12,545,000
Wassily Kandinsky’s large scale canvas Le rond rouge (1939) is a highlight at Christie’s 20th/21st century evening sale in London on March 5. It is considered to be one of the most striking works from the final phase of his careeer. Created while the artist was living in Paris with his wife Nina, Le rond rouge captures the vibrancy and dynamism of his mature abstract language at a moment of profound artistic renewal.
After leaving Germany in 1933 to escape the increasingly hostile political climate, Kandinsky settled in Paris, where he immersed himself in the fervent avant-garde art circles of the city. His Parisian years were also marked by a significant shift in style, as he developed a new visual vocabulary that pushed his work in unexpected directions. It remained in his collection until his death in 1944 and has had an extensive exhibition history. Most recently Le rond rougewas on long-term loan to The Courtauld Gallery in London for sixteen years, between 2002-2018. The estimate is £10,500,000-15,500,000.
A photograph sent to Christie’s request an auction estimate portal by an unsuspecting owner resulted in a $27.2 million (€23.02 million) sale in New York last week. The previously unknown red chalk study for a foot of the Libyan Sibyl in the Sistine Chapel made nearly 20 times its low estimate and set a record for a Michelangelo drawing. It measures just five and a quarter inches in height. A black chalk study for a leg with bent knee is on the back. Christie’s specialist Giada Damen identified it as an original drawing by Michelangelo, done in preparation for the right foot of the monumental figure at the far east end of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The art brought multiple bidders in the room, on the phone and online to a 45 minute bidding battle at the sale of Old Master and British Drawings.
Henry Moore’s seminal work King and Queen will be a highlight at Christie’s 20th/21st Century: London evening sale on March 5. It has been in the same British collection for the past 70 years. Conceived in 1952–53, the sculpture was first cast in an edition of four plus an artist’s cast. This is the only remaining example still in private hands; all other casts are held in major public collections, including the Moa Museum of Art, Atami; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; the Middelheim Museum, Antwerp; and the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena. Two subsequent casts were produced specifically for the Tate Collection (1957) and The Henry Moore Foundation (1985). The estimate is £10 million – £15 million.
The unsettling ambiguity of La plaine de l’air (1940) by Magritte resonated strongly with critics when exhibited at Galerie Dietrich in Brussels in 1941. Painted at a moment when Europe was being engulfed by conflict it shows a single oversized leaf grafted onto a trunk set against a stark mountain landscape. The leaf, one of Magritte’s most distinctive and recurring motifs, introduces a solitary, watchful presence and channels all the tension of the early Second World War. Estimated at £3.5-£5.5 million (€4.03-€6.33 million) it features at Modern Visionaries – the Roger and Josette Vanthournout Collection at Christie’s in London on March 5 and 6 plus an online auction. Assembled over six decades their collection, with an overall estimate is in the region of £40 million (€46 million), spans almost 150 years and ranges from symbolism, Belgian expressionism and surrealism to post war avant garde, minimalism to modern and contemporary British art. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Frederick Remington (1861-1909) – Argument with the Town Marshall. UPDATE: THIS MADE $11.847,500
High Noon at Christie’s at the Rockefeller Center in New York on January 21 sees the most valuable collection of Western American art in history come under the hammer. The low estimate for the William I Koch’s collection is $50 million (€42.9 million). This more than doubles the previous record for any Western American art auction.
Bill Koch, who won the America’s Cup in 1992 with the yacht America3, feels the time has come to pass on this history to other collectors passionate about the American west. “I have been fortunate to collect things that resonate with me, The treasures in this sale are among my favourites” he said.
Charles Marion Russel (1864-1926) – The Sun Worshippers. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Visions of the West is split into two auctions, an evening sale next Tuesday followed by High Noon on Wednesday. There are masterworks by Frederick Remington, Albert Bierstadt and Charles Marion Russell in a collection that is acclaimed around the world.
Remington’s sunset painting Coming to the Call is estimated at $6 million – $8 million (€5.1 million – €6.8 million). Other titles of art by Remington like The Broncho Buster, Argument with the Town Marshall and Coming through the Rye, set the scene firmly in the wild west.
Newell Convers Wyeth (1882-1945) – Wild Bill Hickok at the Cards. UPDATE: THIS MADE $2,210,000
Another work of great interest is Wild Bill Hickok at the Cards by N C Wyeth, patriarch of the Wyeth family of artists. It shows American legends Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok in a card game gone wrong.
Alfred Jacob Miller’s The Buffalo Hunt dates to around 1850 while G Harvey’s Texas Oil Patch from 1981 focuses on the booming oil industry, the basis of much of the wealth of the billionaire businessman.
The old adage caveat emptor (buyer beware) should never be far away from the mind of any collector, big or small. When it comes to Bill Koch it is a case of the seller beware. This keen collector of art and wine demands that it must be what it says on the tin. He has served several high profile lawsuits against sellers, the most notable related to the sale of wine purported to have been owned by Thomas Jefferson. This case is reported to have been settled for $3 million (€2.58 million) in 2014.
UPDATE: The total for both sales exceeded $84 million.
Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) – Mountain Lake. All images courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2025. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Arnout Tholinx, Inspector (circa 1656) made £3.1 million in December, a new world record for a Rembrandt print.
With projected global sales of $6.2 billion in 2025 Christie’s is ending the year on a high note. Auction sales accounted for $4.7 billion (up 8%), private sales for $1.5 billion according to figures released today by Christie’s. No less than 17 works sold privately for more that $15 million and the top three works sold by Christie’s this year were sold privately.
“The energy has returned to the saleroom, online, and across the market. We’ve seen renewed confidence worldwide, reflected in these outstanding results. Our selling performance has remained consistently strong throughout the year: a solid first half followed by an even more competitive second half, delivering exceptional, market-leading outcomes for our clients” said Bonnie Brennan, Christie’s ceo.
The Americas amounted for 41% of sales, EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) 36% and Asia Pacific for 23%.
NEWELL CONVERS WYETH (1882-1945) – Wild Bill Hickok at the Cards
This painting by N C Wyeth, father of the artist Andrew Wyeth, is from the William I Koch collection to be sold by Christie’s in January. The Visions of the West sale is billed as the most valuable western American art auction in history. The low estimate is in the range of $50 million. There will be an evening sale on January 20 followed by a high noon sale on January 21 at the Rockefeller Center in New York. The auctions will offer an array of American western art, including masterworks by Frederic Remington, Albert Bierstadt, and Charles Marion Russell. The Remingtons, featuring 16 rare and important sculptures, as well as some of his greatest paintings, are particularly noteworthy. William I Koch is known as a collector, industrialist, scientist, winner of the America’s Cup and more. The Wyeth is estimated at $1 million – $1.5 million.
