Claude Monet’s Nymphéas of 1904 sells for £18.5 million at Sotheby’s London Sotheby Sale sets benchmark for average lot value realised at any auction ever held in
London: average figure of £2.17 million is unprecedented New auction record set for a work by Henri Matisse
News-Antique.com - Jun 20,2007 - Sale sets benchmark for average lot value realised at any auction ever held in
London: average figure of £2.17 million is unprecedented
New auction record set for a work by Henri Matisse
Over 50% of works sold for prices in excess of high
estimate
TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 2007 -- Claude Monet’s Nymphéas of 1904, a ground-breaking work and one of the
finest of Monet’s famous waterlily series ever to have come to the market, tonight realised £18,500,000
($36,724,350) at Sotheby’s in London. No fewer than eight determined bidders drove the price from £8
million up to the final figure, when the hammer fell to a private Asian collector bidding over the
telephone. This was the second highest price ever achieved for a work by the artist at auction. (The
previous record of £19.8 ($33 million) was achieved for Bassin aux Nymphéas of 1900 at Sotheby’s London
in 1998).
The Monet was the top lot in a sale which realised £80,395,200 ($159,592,512) – the third highest total for
a sale of Impressionist and Modern Art at Sotheby’s London. The sale also set a benchmark in terms of
the average lot price realised in any single session: the average lot price of £2.17 million is
unprecedented in any auction ever held in London.
The second highest price in the sale was achieved for Henri Matisse’s Danseuse dans le fauteuil, sol en
damier of 1942, which achieved £10,996,000 / $21,828,160 - a new record price for the artist’s work at
auction. Estimated at £8-12 million, the work eclipsed the previous record of £10,015,704 ($18.48 million)
achieved at Sotheby’s New York last Spring. A remarkably strident work, in which the sinuous shape of
the model acts as a foil to the strong, geometric patterns of the setting, the painting attracted heated
bidding from four determined bidders, finally selling to a private European collector, also bidding on
the phone. When the work last appeared at Sotheby’s London in June 2000, it sold for £4.9 million.
Melanie Clore, Co-Chairman of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Department Worldwide, said: “We
are extremely pleased with the results of tonight’s sale: Monet’s Nymphéas of 1904 achieved the highest price for
the Impressionist and Modern art sales this week in London. The geographical range of tonight’s bidding was
extraordinary: bidding came from Asia, Russia, the UK and the US. With 50% of lots selling over high estimate,
tonight’s results are indicative of a very healthy market.”
Further notable aspects of tonight’s sale included:
• Over 50% of works sold tonight realised prices in excess of their high estimate.
• Three new artist’s records were achieved: for works by Henri Matisse, Auguste Rodin, Laszlo
Moholy Nagy. In addition, a medium record was set for Franz Marc (record for a work on paper)
– see list at end
• The sale attracted large crowds, over 500 people: tickets for seats were oversubscribed – despite
the addition of two auxiliary auction rooms (each with an additional auctioneer – relaying bids
into the main auction
