Sotheby's November Auctions of Impressionist & Modern Art Achieve $348 Million
Second-Highest Series Total in The Category at Sotheby’s
DAY SALE TOTALS A ROBUST $57.6 MILLION
Propelled by a global appetite for fresh material with attractive estimates, Sotheby’s November 2013 auctions of Impressionist & Modern Art concluded today in New York with an outstanding total of $347.9 million, the second-highest series total in this category in the company’s history*. Today’s Day Sale brought $57,615,875, among Sotheby’s highest totals for such an auction** and well within its overall estimate of $44.2/64.2 million***. Participation from collectors new to Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art sales was felt throughout the day, particularly those from across Asia.
The top lot of Thursday’s auction was Marc Chagall’s Les Amoureux dans le bouquet de fleurs, a 1976 canvas that achieved $2,285,000 over a high estimate of $2 million. The artist’s Coq et jet also commanded one of the sale’s highest prices, fetching $1,109,000 (est. $800,000/1.2 million).
As with yesterday’s Evening Sale, strong results for Impressionist pictures were led by Claude Monet, whose 1888 landscape Le Golfe Juan more than doubled its high estimate of $800,000 and sold for $1,685,000. Top prices for Impressionist works also included Maisons à Argenteuil by Gustave Caillebotte, which soared past its high estimate of $350,000 and fetched $1,325,000, as well as ten additional pictures from The Zieseniss Collection that totaled $1.4 million. Assembled over a century ago and descended in the Zieseniss family to the present owner, the collection achieved $19.7 million at Sotheby’s over the last two days.
Two works by Francis Picabia on offer in the Evening Sale both broke the previous auction record for the artist, and another painting by Picabia exceeded expectations today: Les Pins, effet de soleil à Saint-Honorat (Cannes) brought $1,565,000, well over its high estimate of $800,000.
A group of furniture by brothers Diego and Alberto Giacometti from a private Swiss collection opened the afternoon session, totaling $3.3 million over an overall high estimate of $3 million. A masterful bust of Diego done by Alberto fetched $50,005,000 in last night’s sale.
* Sotheby’s highest-ever total for a season of Impressionist & Modern Art auctions worldwide is $373.3 million, set in May 2012 when Edvard Munch’s The Scream sold for $119.9 million, the current auction record for any work of art.
** Sotheby’s highest-ever total for a Day Sale of Impressionist & Modern Art is $61.8 million, set in November 2007 in New York.
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Sotheby’s has been uniting collectors with world-class works of art since 1744. Sotheby’s became the first international auction house when it expanded from London to New York (1955), the first to conduct sales in Hong Kong (1973) and France (2001), and the first international fine art auction house in China (2012). Today, Sotheby’s presents auctions in nine different salesrooms, including New York,London, Hong Kong and Paris, and Sotheby’s BidNow program allows visitors to view all auctions live online and place bids in real-time from anywhere in the world. Sotheby’s offers collectors the resources of Sotheby’s Financial Services, the world’s only full-service art financing company, as well as private sale opportunities in more than 70 categories, including S|2, the gallery arm of Sotheby’s Contemporary Art department, as well as Sotheby’s Diamonds and Sotheby’s Wine. Sotheby’s has aglobal network of 90 offices in 40 countries and is the oldest company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (BID).
***Estimates do not include buyer’s premium and prices achieved include the hammer price plus buyer’s premium.
