In what can be considered London's largest art sale in history, auction house Sotheby's managed to raise UKŁ94.9 million by selling more than 75 per cent of a cache of Impressionists, 20th century and modern paintings estimated worth more than UKŁ400 million on Monday.
Among the artists whose works went up for sale were Impressionists like Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet, Amedeo Modigliani, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Paul Cezanne, and Surrealists like Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dali, and Rene Magritte, among several others. In the modern lot, works by the likes of Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon, Damien Hirst, Hans Richter, Roy Lichtenstein and graffiti artist Banksy, and several others, were up for grabs.
Renoir's 1889 work
Les Deux Soeurs, which was put up for sale by Revlon Cosmetics mogul Charles Lachman, sold for UKŁ6.8 million, a little over the lower spectrum of its UKŁ6 million to UKŁ8 million estimate. Two other paintings owned by Lachman to go were Raoul Dufy's 1907 masterpiece
La Foire aux Oignons, which sold for UKŁ4.1 million, way over its estimate of UKŁ1.8 million, and Maurice de Vlaminck's 1906 creation
Symphonie en Couleurs (Fleurs), which earned a comfortable UKŁ3 million.
Monet's
Maison du Jardiniere went for UKŁ3.6 million, slightly above its estimate, while Edgar Degas'
Trois Danseurs de Jupe Violette was sold for UKŁ3.7 million, a little less than its UKŁ4 million lower estimate. A 1921 Chaim Soutine portrait,
L'Homme au Foulard Rouge, owned by Humana Inc's Cherry family, fetched a record UKŁ8.8 million.
However, the most unexpected winner was the
Torso der Schreitenden, a female torso sculpture by Wilhelm Lehmbruck, which surpassed its UKŁ250,000 to UKŁ300,000 estimate by going for a steep UKŁ1 million. Perhaps what pushed the price of this sculpture was the interest generated by the fact that it recently came back to its original Czech owners after they lost the sculpture to the Nazis in 1939.
Among the works that failed to find buyers were two works by Egon Schiele, two by Pierre Bonnard, three by Emil Nolde, one each by Rene Magritte and Edgar Degas and several by Monet and Eugene Boudin. Overall, about 23 per cent of the cache remained unsold, in spite of a strong turnout of 650 bidders for its 98 lots offered.
Now, all eyes are on Sotheby's rival Christie's, which will put up its 130 lots for auction on Today.
