The superb work Le Palais Ducal by Claude Monet from 1908 was sold at a Sotheby's auction on February 26 for 27,5 million pounds totaling $36,2 million – a new record for a Venetian vision by the artist that has never gone to auction before. Le Palais Ducal is a rarity on the market, almost half of Monet's canvases from the magical city are in museum collections.
Sales of Impressionist, Modern and Surrealist art brought a total auction value of £87,7 million. 82% of the lots offered found a buyer, 46% of the works had never been auctioned before and there were 10.000 visitors to the New Bond Street pre-auction exhibitions.
Helena Newman, Head of Impressionist & Modern Art at Sotheby's Worldwide, said: “It was great to see these first sales off to such a promising and vibrant start. The combination of bidding from Asia and the rest of the world provided bright and determined awards. The first two lots – Monet's glittering vision of Venice and Schiele's radical-modernist canvas – both possessed the holy grail of quality that never ceases to appeal to collectors, and we were delighted to be able to bring to market a truly rare that have attracted not only solid offers but also large crowds of visitors to our galleries”.
GERMAN AND AUSTRIAN ART
After success of the results obtained by the lots of German and Austrian art at Sotheby's New York last November, the auction saw new demand for rare and important pieces, with six works totaling £25,5 million corresponding to $33,5 million.
The group was led by the exclusive Triestiner Fischerboot from 1912 by Egon Schiele, a square-format work painted following turbulent events, which fetched £10,7 million ($14 million), attracting bids from Asia and other parts of the world. Also for this painting, like Claude Monet's Le Palais Ducal, it was the first time at auction, having remained in the same collection for over 50 years. Also by the artist, Auf dem Bauch liegendes Mädchen, a major work on paper, sold for £1,6m, tripling its pre-sale estimate.
An exuberant early work by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Mädchen auf dem Diwan from 1906 made its auction debut at £3,8m, benefiting MoMA, Museum of Modern Art, New York's acquisition fund.
There were no references to XNUMXth anniversary of the birth of the Bauhaus school which were celebrated by the offer of works belonging to three of the main protagonists of the movement. The auctioned pieces were received with interest from Asia and Russia, demonstrating the international appeal of the school that made the history of XNUMXth century art.
Tischgesellschaft by Oskar Schlemmer from 1923 is a rare museum quality painting, from the collection of Dr Erika Pohl-Ströher, which sold to a Russian buyer for £2,6 million, setting a record for the artist, whose last major oil sold at auction in 1998.
Vertiefte Regung by Wassily Kandinsky del 1928 is a meditation on the essential beauty of circles and sold for £6,1 million, while
László Moholy-Nagy's Segments from 1921 embodies a rare example of his avant-garde vision and has returned to auction for the first time since 1985 and sold for £495.000.
SURREALIST ART
The section dedicated to surrealist art was led by L'Etoile du matin from 1938 by René Magritte, which sold for £5,3m on its first auction appearance. Magritte juxtaposes the profile of a Native American with that of his beloved wife Georgette. Painted at the same time as Le Prince du Plaisir, which set a record for the artist at a New York auction last November, it was purchased a year after its execution by a famous Belgian couple and has remained in the same collection.
Impressive in scale and superbly crafted, Francis Picabia's 1929 Atrata appeared at auction for the first time since 1974.
A monumental late Parisian canvas by Man Ray entitled Femmelaharpe and from the year 1957 – inspired by the Old Masters motif of a woman playing an instrument – sold for £1.6m.
OTHER LOTS SOLD
The Repos du Faune from 1956 by Pablo Picasso depicts a classic allegory on the three ages of man sold for $2,1 million to an Asian collector. Prior to this sale, this important work had been in the same private collection for decades and never went to auction.
The portrait of Alberto Giacometti depicting his wife, a work entitled Tête de Femme (Annette) and dating back to 1959, was also contested by four bidders from Russia and Asia, to arrive at a sale value of 3,3 million pounds.
Also for Marc Chagall, Le Peintre à la Fête from 1982, a joyous composition, dominated by the figure of an artist at work, which has never before appeared at auction, sold for £1,8 million.
