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
room) were set up to accommodate overflow.
• An unprecedented number of telephone bids were registered: 40 telephone lines were installed
in the room – with almost every work carrying multiple telephone bids
• 5 works were sold for over £4 million
17 works were sold for over £1 million
31 works were sold for over $1 million
Further remarkable results were achieved for:
• A rare life-time bronze cast by Auguste Rodin - Iris, Messagère des dieux – realised £4,612,000
($9,155,281) - against an estimate of £400,000-600,000. The price was not only ten times the presale
estimate, but also exceeded the previous record of £2.9 million ($4,842,500) by a wide margin.
Only one other life-time cast of this figure has ever appeared on the market before, and the rarity
of this particular figure (which came to sale from the Larry and Leah Superstein collection)
proved highly attractive to the determined bidders who pursued it to its final price.
• The £4,164,000 achieved for Amedeo Modigliani’s Jeune Femme (Totote de la Gaîté) of circa
1917 - one of the artist’s late portraits which rank among the most refined and accomplished
works in his oeuvre which are notable for the depth of their emotional and psychological intensity
• Another work by Monet, Camille à l’Ombrelle Verte – a charming painting dated 1876 depicting
Monet’s wife in the family garden at Argenteuil sold for £4,164,000 against an estimate of £2.5 –
3.5 million
• The £3,268,000 / $6,487,307 for Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Réflexion of 1877 (est: £2.5–3.5 million) -
an exquisite example of the artist’s work dating from the height of his Impressionist period.
• A number of works outstripped their pre-sale estimates by a wide margin. These included
o Alberto Giacometti’s Buste de Diego - a bronze of the artist’s brother - sold for £2.14
million ($4,263,995) against an estimate of £1.5 – 2 million.
o Pablo Picasso’s Tete d’Homme of 1969 sold for: £2,260,000 against an estimate of
£800,000-1,200,000
o Paul Gauguin’s Bouquet et Ceramique, 1886, sold for : £2,484,000, against an estimate
of:£1,000,000-1,500,000
o Pablo Picasso’s Peintre Sold for: £3,268,000 against an estimate of £2,200,000-2,800,000
Other notes
• A vibrant, powerful work by Alexej von Jawlensky - Die Sinnende (The Thinking Woman) of
circa 1912 made £2,148,000/ 4,263,995
• US consignments accounted for a high proportion of the proceeds:
33% by lot compared to 16% by lot in February 2006. In particular, the four works
from the collection of Californian collectors and philanthropists Larry and Leah
Superstein realised £9,712,000 – nearly three times the low estimate for the group of
£3.4 million
• News buyers were out in force – with a high proportion of lots selling to buyers new to the
category.
Records :
Henri Matisse
Danseuse dans le fauteuil, 1942
Estimate : £8,000,000 – 12,000,000
Sold for : £10,996,000 ($21,828,160)
Auguste Rodin
Iris, Messagère des Dieux
Estimate: £400,-000-600,000
Sold for : £4,612,000 ($9,155,281)
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
Z IV, 1923
Estimate: £600,000 – 800,000
Sold for: £804,000 ($1,596,020)
Record for
