Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sale Brings $39 Million at Sotheby's New York
Today’s Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sale at Sotheby’s New York brought $38,982,225, above the pre-sale low estimate of $34.4 million and the highest total for an Impressionist & Modern Day Sale at Sotheby’s worldwide since February 2008.
Following the success of Alberto Giacometti’s Femme debout, which sold for $7,362,500 against a high estimate of $3 million in last night’s Evening Sale, today’s auction was led by a pair of unique bronze sculptures by the artist.Petite Figurine (Homme) & Petite Figurine (Femme) achieved $962,500, well above their high estimate of $600,000. Cast circa 1946, the works were a gift from Giacometti to a friend.
“We are very pleased with the results of today’s sale, which echoed a number of themes that we saw last night,” commented Molly Ott Ambler, Vice President and Head of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sales and Elizabeth Goldberg, Senior Vice President and Senior Specialist in Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art department. ”In an international market of increasingly savvy and selective collectors, fresh works of great quality continue to perform strongly when estimated at attractive levels. This was perhaps best evidenced by nine of the top ten lots achieving prices in excess of their pre-sale high estimates, in several cases by multiples. Sculpture proved attractive again today as it did last night, with works across styles and periods by Alberto Giacometti, Jacques Lipchitz and Auguste Rodin in our top ten, as well as a pair of wooden shoes carved by Paul Gauguin that brought $338,500, more than double their high estimate.”
In total, Sotheby’s New York sales of Impressionist & Modern Art brought $209,460,225 this week, within pre-sale expectations.
