Modigliani’s Painting Of A Reclining Nude Hammered For $170.4-M At Christie’s NY
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Chinese billionaire Liu Yiqian bought Amedeo Modigliani’s painting of a reclining nude woman for $170.4-M, the 2nd-highest price for an artwork at auction, in a sale at Christie’s New York.
Modigliani’s Y 1917 “Nu Couche (Reclining Nude)” anchored Christie’s special, mixed-category sale titled “The Artist’s Muse,” which included 34 paintings and sculptures created from the 1860’s through the 2000’s.
The evening tallied $491.4-M, setting 5 auction records for artists including Gustave Courbet and Roy Lichtenstein, whose painting of a nurse sold for $95.4-M. The Modigliani price was an auction record for the Italian artist.
Some resistance was visible during the evening sale, which was part of a 10-day marathon in which more than $2.1-B of art is on offer at Christie’s, Sotheby’s (NYSE:BID),and Phillips.
The results fell within Christie’s presale target range of $442 – 540-M but were 30% lower than the company’s sale in May, “Looking Forward to the Past.” That auction tallied $705.9-M, and a Pablo Picasso painting set a new auction record at $179.4.
Bidding for Modigliani’s ravishing brunette on a Red couch started at $75-M and attracted 7 hopefuls. The Long Museum in China was the buyer of the Modigliani, according to Christie’s. The museum was founded by Liu Yiqian.
The previous auction record for Modigliani was $70.7-M, established at Sotheby’s a year ago for a carved stone head of a woman.
Lichtenstein’s comic book-style “Nurse” painting fetched $95.4-M, also an artist auction record.
The work’s value increased about 5,500% in the 20 years since it last sold at auction. Lichtenstein’s previous auction record of $56.1-M was achieved in May 2013 at Christie’s in New York.
Paul Gauguin’s carved wood sculpture of a woman, “Therese” (1902-1903), fetched $30.9-M, surpassing the high estimate of $25-M.The winner was a client of Conor Jordan, Christie’s deputy chairman of Impressionist and modern art in New York.
Great works that have not been seen on the open market for decades, like the Modigliani, “created a huge amount of energy and bidding,” said Pylkkanen, Christie’s global President. Those that weren’t as fresh or had the estimates that were “a bit strong” led to the evening’s disappointments, he said.
Several pieces backed by Christie’s failed to find buyers. One of the unsold guaranteed lots was De Kooning’s “Woman,” estimated at $14 – 18-M.
Christie’s has jammed its Impressionist, modern and contemporary auctions into a week, a strategy that worked for the company in May when it walked away with $1.7-B, almost 2X rival Sotheby’s tally.
Sotheby’s last week sold $377-M in its evening sale, “Masterworks,” from the collection of its former Chairman A. Alfred Taubman. A Modigliani painting was the top lot in that auction, too. Unlike the nude at Christie’s, Modigliani’s woman at Sotheby’s was fully robed in black, and at $42.8-M was 4X less.
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Paul Ebeling
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