Sotheby’s Modern Evening Auction in New York made $303.9 million against an estimate of $242 million to $320.2 million, up 63 percent on the equivalent sale last May and the highest total for a Modern various-owner sale since November 2022. With a 98 percent sell-through rate and bidding from 31 countries, the sale carried Sotheby’s marquee week to a running total of $839.6 million.
The night belonged to Henri Matisse’s La Chaise lorraine, from the Barbier Mueller Collection and unseen at auction for decades. Four bidders chased it for more than ten minutes before it sold for $48.4 million against an estimate in excess of $25 million, the second-highest price for a painting by Matisse at auction.
Pablo Picasso’s Arlequin (Buste), from the collection of Adele and Enrico Donati and acquired decades ago from the artist’s dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, sold for $42.6 million. Vincent van Gogh’s La Moisson en Provence made $29.4 million, the second-highest price for a work on paper by the artist, and Alberto Giacometti’s La Clairière (Composition avec neuf figures), from the David and Shoshanna Wingate Collection, reached $23.1 million after five minutes of bidding. A second Matisse, La Séance du matin, sold to a collector in Asia for $20 million.
Several benchmarks fell. Mark Rothko’s Untitled (1959), a work on paper, set a record for the artist at its scale at $9.3 million, part of $230.5 million in Rothko sold across the auction houses this season. The evening also brought the second-highest auction price for a work on paper by Georgia O’ Keeffe and a record for a painted bottle by René Magritte.
Every one of the five works by women artists on offer sold above its high estimate, led by O’ Keeffe’s Inside Clam Shell at $8.9 million, with strong results for Varvara Stepanova, whose Two Figures made $2.3 million to become the second-highest price for the artist at auction, alongside Dorothea Tanning, Leonora Carrington and Leonor Fini.
Single-owner material again did much of the work. Three pieces from the Donati collection realised $58.9 million, the David and Shoshanna Wingate Collection added $40.5 million, and tonight’s results lifted the collection of Jean and Terry de Gunzburg, following last month’s white-glove design sale, to a final $157.6 million. Asian collectors were active throughout, pursuing works by Rothko, Giacometti, Picasso, Klee, Chagall, O’ Keeffe, Degas and Schiele.
Sotheby’s Modern Day sale follows tomorrow, and a further $200 million of Modern art from the Lewis Collection will be offered in London this June.
(Press Release)
