Sotheby's Impressionist Evening sale: 5th February 2008 Last night’s sale of Impressionist & Modern Art at Sotheby’s London was the highest totalling sale ever held by the Company in Europe, realising £116,699,900 ($230,517,312).
Pablo Picasso’s striking 1938 portrait of Dora Maar - lot 41, Tête de Femme (La Lectrice - Dora
Maar). - which came to sale from the collection of the noted connoisseur, collector and dealer
Heinz Berggruen - sold for £7,412,500 ($14,641,911 ) (est: £6,500,000-8,500,000). Also from the
Berggruen collection was Picasso’s exquisite Minotaure et Femme from 1937 (lot 42, est: £900,000-
1,200,000) which sold for £1,700,500 ($3,358,998).
Alberto Giacometti’s Buste sold for £5,620,500 against an estimate of £2,000,000 – 3,000,000 – the
second highest price for a painting by the artist at auction.
One of Claude Monet’s early winter landscapes, La Route de la Ferme Saint-Siméon en Hiver (lot
36) of 1867 – made £4,276,500 ($8,447,370) (est: £3,000,000-4,000,000); whilst Paul Cézanne’s
Poires et Couteau (lot 35) of 1877–78 from the renowned Joan Whitney Payson collection sold for
£2,148,500 against an estimate of £2,000,000–3,000,000.
Continuing the trend of exceptional prices achieved recently for sculptural works at Sotheby’s, a
monumental bronze by Henry Moore (Draped Reclining Mother and Baby, 1983, lot 40) tonight
sold to a European private collector for £3,716,500 ($7,341,202 ) - the highest price ever achieved
for any work by Moore sold in the UK.
Further Statistics:
• Five lots sold for over £5 million
• 30 lots sold for over £1 million (versus 30 lots at this level in February last year, and 17 lots
at this level in June last year)
• 47 lots sold for over $ 1million
• 59.7% of lots sold made over their high estimate (cf. 57% in February and 51% in June 2007)
• The sale maintained Sotheby’s tradition of high average lot values, with an average value of
£1.74 for the lots sold tonight – well in excess of that of its nearest competitor, and above the .
average lot value of £1.26 million in February last year.)
• Wide geographical spread of buyers. Breakdown by lot:
67 % Europe
13% US
3% Asia
15% Russia
Total realised Low est: High Est Sold by £ Sold by lot Lots offered/sold
£116,699,900 £81,090,000 £112,110,000 93.4% 88.2% 76/67
($230,517,312)
59.7% of the lots sold realised prices in excess of their high estimate
Within which:
German & Austrian Art
£39,646,100 £25,170,000 £33,960,000 89.3% 95.1% 28/25
($78,312,941)
64% of works sold sold above high estimate in this group.
Notes to Editors:
Sotheby’s is the world’s leading auction house for the sale of masterpieces in the field of Impressionist and Modern Art. In 2007 Sotheby’s sold
the highest value work in every Impressionist and Modern Art sale globally. Sotheby’s sales in this category will continue on 6th February with
the Impressionist and Modern Art Day Sale estimated to bring £18,211,000 to £25, 211,000 and the Impressionist and Modern Works on Paper
estimated to bring £7,082,000 to £9,950,000.
IMAGES AVAILABLE VIA EMAIL
*Estimates do not include buyer’s premium
