Amadeo Mogliani’s Nu assis au collier sold for a record £48.2 million at Sotheby’s tonight. This was a new European record for the artist. The collection of billionaire Joe Lewis achieved £296.3 million to become the highest single owner collection ever sold in London. A 1995 nude by Lucian Freud, Sleeping by the Lion Carpet made £29.3 million and a portrait of Gertrud Loew by Gustave Klimt sold for £36.2 million. Magritte’s La Belle Promenade, with a high estimate of £4 million, sold for £16 million, a record for a work on paper by the artist. Joe Lewis, former owner of Tottenham Hotspur football club, built up the collection with his daughter Vivienne.
The Modern and Contemporary auction followed at Sotheby’s. Claude Monet’s Nymphéas was the top lot, selling for £40.7 million.
Masterpieces from the Lewis Collection and the Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction achieved a combined total of £393.4 million – the highest auction total ever achieved in a single night in Europe.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for June 19, June 13, June 7 and May 1, 2026)
Amadeo Modigliani – Nu assis au collier. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £48,235,000
The 25 defining masterpieces of modern figurative painting from the Lewis Collection at Sotheby’s on June 24 constitute the most valuable single collection ever offered in London.
A nude considered scandalous by Modigliani leads an auction which features stellar artists like Picasso, Schiele, Bacon, Klimt, Freud, Caillebotte and Toulouse-Lautrec. Modigliani’s sensuous Nu assis au collier (Seated nude with necklace) ranks among the most important works by the artist ever to come to market. It is estimated to make around £45 million (€52.1 million). Painted in 1917 it belongs to a series now widely regarded as pivotal in the evolution of modern art, but considered so outrageous at the time the exhibition in which they featured was shut down by the police. Modigliani is one of a rare coterie of artists to have broken the $100 million threshold at auction, not just once but twice – each time in New York. Both were works from this series. The mantle now passes to London where this is one of the highest value works of any kind ever offered in the city and the highest value work by Modigliani ever to be offered in Europe.
Pablo Picasso – Buste de Femme. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £23,855,000
A suite of seven works by Picasso spans eight full decades of his career. The group is led by a highly unusual and evocative portrait of Dora Maar, the vibrant, fiercely independent artist who first attracted his attention by playing ‘knife roulette’ between her splayed fingers on an adjacent table at Les Deux Magots in Paris. As well as becoming Picasso’s muse and lover Maar also became his indispensable intellectual and artistic sparring partner. Given both the provocative nature of their nine year relationship and the tumultuous backdrop against which it unfolded (the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War), the vast majority of Picasso’s renditions of Dora Maar are angular and jagged in form. Buste de femme, unseen for over half a century, is a rare example of something quite different – a generous, sweepingly lyrical rendition of the Dora Maar with whom Picasso was still entirely besotted in 1938 when this work was painted.
Egon Schiele – Danaë. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £17,932,500
With its jewel like surface and geometric patterning Egon Schiele’s Danaë – painted when the artist was just 19 – is seen as a key breakthrough work. Here Schiele imagines the mythological scene in which Zeus descends on Danaë in a shower of golden rain, its heaviness accentuated by the introduction of greens and blacks. Schiele died in the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918 aged just 28.
Bacon’s Two Studies for a Self-Portrait was made in 1977 and captures an artist beset by inner turmoil. Following the suicide of his love George Dyer in 1971 Bacon launched into a period of production that would become the most emotionally fraught but ambitious of his career. Behind these works lies a decade of guilt, bereavement, and self-scrutiny, marked by the deaths of many of those closest to him – not only George Dyer, but also Peter Lacey. When asked in 1979 why he made so many self-portraits, Bacon explained: “people have been dying around me like flies and I’ve had nobody else to paint but myself.”
Many of the works in a sale estimated to make in the region of £200 million (€231.5 million) have been shown in major museums across the globe. They were assembled over decades by Joe Lewis and his daughter Vivienne. Born and raised in London’s East End, Joe Lewis felt a natural affinity as a collector with the School of London painters, such as Bacon and Freud, whose work confronted the human condition with an uncompromising intensity. That early passion became the foundation for what is today one of the world’s most important private collections of modern art, shaped by a fascination with the human figure in all its forms.
Over the years the collection has been re-shaped. The Lewis journey as collectors is far from over. “We remain committed to the avant garde painters of today, much of whose work is informed by the artists showcased here” a statement said.
Billionaire Joe Lewis, who left school at 15 to help his father run his father’s West End catering business, was born in 1937 to a Jewish family living above a public house in Bow, East London. He holds assets through his Tavistock Group and was previously the majority owner of ENIC Group, the majority owner of Tottenham Hotspur. Accused of tipping off associates and friends with non public information and charged with multiple counts of insider trading in New York in 2023 he pleaded guilty. Lewis was spared jail time, fined $5 million and later pardoned by Donald Trump. His art collection is estimated to be worth $1 billion.
Francis Bacon – Two Studies for self-portrait. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £8,675,000
Amedeo Modigliani – Elvire en buste sold for €27 million.
There was a record for a painting by Modigliani sold at auction in France when Elvire en buste sold for €27 million at Sotheby’s in Paris. Spirited competition between seven bidders led to a result that far exceeded the pre-sale high estimate of €7.5 million making it the most valuable work of art ever sold by Sotheby’s Paris. A second work by Modigliani entitled Raymond (thought to be a portrait of the young novelist Raymond Radiguet) made €10.6 million over a top estimate of €7.5 million.
AMEDEO MODIGLIANI (1884-1920) – Beatrice Hastings (devant une porte) Painted in 1915 Price Realised: $17,565,000
In eight days of art sales in New York Christie’s has so far achieved $2 billion. The 20th Century evening sale and the 21st Century evening sale which ran consecutively at Christie’s in New York last night made $421,976,700. When combined with the results of the Paul Allen collection the total reached an unprecedented $2,044,226,200.
The 20th Century sale made $307,945,300 and was 96% sold by lot and 88% by value. Mark Rothko’s Untitled and Amedeo Modigliani’s Beatrice Hastings each sold for $17,565,000. Additional highlights included works by notable female artists. A massive canvas by Joan Mitchell made $14,130,000, and a rare self-portrait by Frida Kahlo made $8,634,000.
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Sugar Ray Robinson, was the top lot at the 21st century sale and made $32,679,000. Results for female artists and artists of colour were strong. Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Minjung Kim, Noah Davis and Rashid Johnson all set new records.
UPDATE: The two weeks of sales concluded having achieved $2,170,537,204 over seven live auctions and one online.
An example of Modigliani’s defining work as a sculptor comes up at Christie’s in New York in May. The limestone Tete, carved c1911-12, is among the finest examples of the approximately twenty-six carved stones that defined Modigliani’s sculptural output, and one of the last left in private hands. Estimated at $30-40 million it comes up at the New York evening sale of Impressionist and Modern Art. It is from a European private collection.
Amedeo Modigliani,Tête UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $34.3 MILLION
Auctions at Sotheby’s worldwide totalled $5.3 billion in 2018. This is a 12% increase over 2017. Online buyers spent more than $200 million this year and 25% of all lots sold in 2018 were sold online. The top lot of the year at any auction house was Modigliani’s Nu Couche which sold for $157.2 million in New York in May. This was the highest auction price in Sotheby’s history.
Queen Marie Antoinette’s pearl sold for $36.2 million in Geneva in November.
Amedeo Modigliani Nu couché (sur le côté gauche) Signed Modigliani (lower left)
Amadeo Modigliani’s Nu Couche (Sur le cote gauche) sold for $157.2 million at Sotheby’s in New York last night. This is the highest price in Sotheby’s auction history and nearly six times the price paid for the same painting when it was sold by casino mogul Steve Wynn in 2003. The seller this time round is believed to be the Irish horse trainer John Magnier of Coolmore Stud. Modigliani now belongs to a rarefied league of only three artists to break the US$150 million barrier at auction, along with Pablo Picasso and Leonardo da Vinci.
A quarter of all sold works at the Impressionist and Modern Art evening sale were acquired by Asian private collectors. Those works were led by Pablo Picasso’s dreamy 1932 portrait of Marie-Thérèse Walter, Le Repos, whichmade$36.9 million. A portion of the proceeds from the work will go to charity through The Sue J. Gross Foundation. The painting last sold at auction in 2000 for $7.9 million. The evening sale achieved $318.3 million.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for April 24, 2018)
Amedeo Modigliani Nu couché (sur le côté gauche) Signed Modigliani (lower left)
Modigliani’s largest painting – Nu couché (sur le côté gauche) – is estimated to sell for more than $150 million at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art evening sale in New York on May 14. This is the highest estimate ever placed on a work of art at auction. Nu couchéwas acquired by the present owner at auction in 2003 for $26.9 million. The seller is believed to be Irish bloodstock billionaire John Magnier who owns Coolmore Stud, the world’s biggest breeder of thoroughbred racehorses. His wife Susan co-owns a promising three-year-old colt named Amedeo Modigliani. It was previously owned by casino mogul Steve Wynn.
In 2015, another reclining nude from the series sold at auction for $170.4 million, at the time marking the second-highest price ever paid for a work of art at auction.
Painted a century ago, Nu couché is the greatest work from the iconic series in which Modigliani reinvented the nude for the Modern era. Upon their debut exhibition in 1917, these striking and sensual images stopped traffic – quite literally – and prompted the police to close the show. Today, the series is recognized as one of the seminal achievements in Modern painting. The shock and awe that Modigliani’s nudes continue to elicit was evident most recently during Tate Modern’s celebrated retrospective of the artist’s work that included Nu couché. The work is the largest painting of Modigliani’s entire oeuvre – measuring nearly 58 inches / 147 centimeters across – and the only one of his horizontal nudes to contain the entire figure within the canvas.
Most of the 22 reclining nudes from the series are found in museums, with particular depth in the United States: the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Museum of Modern Art and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York each hold three examples. Outside of the United States, institutions with reclining nudes include the Long Museum in Shanghai and The Courtauld Gallery in London.
The most expensive lot at Sotheby’s in 2016 was Picasso’s Femme Assise
A heady list of art and diamonds make up Sotheby’s top ten lots in 2016. Picasso, Modigliani, Munch, Twombly, Bacon, Daqian, Richter and Gentileschi in that order accounted for the top art works, a blue diamond and a pink diamond made up the balance.
Picasso’s Femme Assise, 1909 which sold for £43,269,000 ($63,631,391) in London in June topped the list. Next came Amedeo Modigliani with Jeanne Hébuterne (Au Foulard), 1919 which sold for £38,509,000 ($56,631,335): Edvard Munch, Pikene på broen (Girls on the Bridge), 1902 which sold for $54,487,500: Cy Twombly, Untitled (New York City), 1968 sold for $36,650,000: Francis Bacon, Two Studies For A Self-Portrait, 1970 sold for $34,970,000: Zhang Daqian, Peach Blossom Spring, 1982 sold for HKD $270,680,000 (US$ 34,702,564) and Gerhard Richter, A.B., Still, 1986 sold for $33,987,500.
Number eight on the list was the De Beers Millennium Jewel 4 which sold for HK$248,280,000 ($32,013,223). Ninth came the Unique Pink, a fancy vivid diamond ring which sold for CHF 30,826,000 (US$31,561,200) and Orazio Gentileschi, Danaë, 1621 which sold for $30,490,000 was tenth.
Pablo Picasso’s Cubist masterpiece Femme assise sold for £43.3 million at Sotheby’s in London tonight. This is a new record price for any Cubist work at auction and the highest price for any work sold in London in over five years.
Femme assise of 1909 came to the market tonight having remained in a private collection since 1973 when it was acquired for £340,000. The sale also saw a record for a portrait by Amedeo Modigliani, as Jeanne Hébuterne (au foulard) of 1919 mde £38.5 million, the second-highest price for a painting sold in London in over five years. The evening sale of Impressionist & Modern Art at Sotheby’s totalled £103,280,000.
The price paid for Femme Assise was the highest price in London since the sale of Alberto Giacometti’s Walking Man I at Sotheby’s London in 2010 for £65 million.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for June 5 and May 17, 2016 and World Sculpture Price Records)
