SOTHEBY'S RESULTS: JUNE SERIES OF IMPRESSIONIST & MODERN ART SALES IN LONDON REALISES £130 MILLION SOTHEBY’S JUNE SALE OF IMPRESSIONIST & MODERN ART TOTAL OF £102.2 MILLION (US$201.2 MILLION), EXCEEDS HIGH ESTIMATE OF £97.4 MILLION
News-Antique.com - Jul 08,2008 - SOTHEBY’S JUNE SALE OF
IMPRESSIONIST & MODERN ART TOTAL OF
£102.2 MILLION (US$201.2 MILLION),
EXCEEDS HIGH ESTIMATE OF £97.4 MILLION
Highest total for any summer sale of Impressionist & Modern Art held by the company
Gino Severini’s Futurist masterpiece soars above estimate realising £15 million (US$29.6 million), and establishing a record for any futurist work ever sold at auction
LONDON, 25 JUNE 2008 – Sotheby’s Evening Sale of Impressionist and Modern Art tonight realised
£102,246,500 (US$201,210,887) - well in excess of its pre-sale estimate (£68.2 – 97.4 million) and the
highest total for any summer sale of Impressionist and Modern Art held by the company in Europe. In a
buoyant saleroom, an unprecedented 50 out of 55 lots sold, with more than half the lots achieving prices in
excess of high estimate.
Melanie Clore, Co-Chairman of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art department worldwide, said: “In
tonight’s extremely successful sale, we saw strong, informed bidding from an international pool of buyers.
Iconic works of exceptional quality which were fresh to the market triumphed, and rewarded us with the
highest percentage of lots sold of any Impressionist and Modern Art various owners sale ever held at
Sotheby’s in London. A remarkable 45 out of the 50 lots sold achieved over $1 million. An exceptional 70% by
lot was sold to European buyers (including UK and Russia), reflecting the exceptional strength of this
burgeoning market.”
The five top prices of the evening were:
- Danseuse, of 1915, a modern masterpiece by Italian Futurist Gino Severini. Estimated at
£7,000,000-10,000,000 this seminal work made £15,049,250 (US$29,615,419) – seven times the
previous record for a work by the artist ($3.6/£2.17 million at Sotheby’s New York in 1990), and
establishing a new record for any Futurist work ever sold at auction**. Having once hung in the
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, this museum-quality work attracted bids from no fewer
than five prospective buyers this evening.
- Trois hommes qui marchent I (1948) – an important bronze dating from the pinnacle of Alberto
Giacometti’s career. One of the first multiple figure sculptures made by the artist, the work realised
£9,449,250 (US$18,595179) – double the pre-sale estimate of £4,000,000-6,000,000. [In 1994, this
same work sold for just $1.87 million.]
- Pablo Picasso’s Tête de femme (Dora Maar). A powerful depiction of the artist’s mistress and
artistic companion, Dora Maar was pursued by no fewer than six determined bidders. It sold for
£7,881,250 (US$15,509,512) - twice the pre-sale estimate of £3,000,000-5,000,000. That painting, and
four others in this evening’s sale, came to auction from the collection of Haaken A Christensen, sold to
benefit Médecins sans Frontières (see below).
- Claude Monet’s La Plage à Trouville of 1870 - a lively, iconic beach scene from a key moment in
Monet’s early career. The work made £7,657,250 (US$15,068,702).
- Picasso’s Mousquetaire. Buste of 1968, which made £5,529,250 (US$10,881,011).
Works from the Collection of Haaken A. Christensen sold to benefit Médecins sans Frontières
The Impressionist and Modern Art Evening sale included
