The second-biggest price was for Van Gogh’s landscape of a field of wild flowers under billowing clouds that fetched $54 million, at the low end of its presale estimate of $50 million to $70 million. Only one bidder wanted the work, which went to the telephone client of Simon Shaw, co-head of Sotheby’s worldwide Impressionist and modern art department.
“That was a surprise,” said Stephane C. Connery, whose Connery & Associates Fine Art specializes in high-end private sales of Impressionist and 20th century art. “I personally liked that Van Gogh. Someone got very lucky. Maybe what happened yesterday cooled people’s appetite.”
On Wednesday, Sotheby’s pulled out all the stops for “Masterworks,” the evening auction of 77 top pieces in the Taubman collection. Despite the packed room, the sale lacked energy and many works fell short of the low estimates. Dealers thought the material didn’t merit the robust valuations.
The day sale from the collection ignited more fireworks, selling $42.7 million, near the high estimate, and bringing the running Taubman tally to $420 million. Billionaire Ronald Lauder paid $3.7 million for a portrait by Richard Gerstl, four times the high estimate, for Neue Galerie, his private museum in New York.
Asian Buyers
Asian buyers were present on both days. At the Taubman sale on Wednesday, they picked up the top lot, Amedeo Modigliani’s 1919 painting of a somber young woman in a black dress that fetched $42.8 million, exceeding its presale target of more than $25 million, as well as paintings by Francis Bacon and Roy Lichtenstein and a bronze by Alberto Giacometti.
On Thursday, Patti Wong, Sotheby’s chairman of Asia, bought Picasso’s “Blue Period” pastel for $12 million on behalf of a client, as well as Van Gogh’s small portrait of a baby for $7.6 million, surpassing the high estimate of $5 million.
Both works, as well as Van Gogh’s Arles landscape, were part of the 10-lot group from the Belgian collection of Louis and Evelyn Franck. Nine artworks sold, tallying $98.5 million and surpassing the presale target of $80 million.
Kazimir Malevich’s “Mystic Suprematism (Black Cross on Red Oval)” brought $37.8 million, just above the low estimate of $35 million. The painting was sold by the Russian artist’s heirs, who won its return after a restitution settlement in 2008 with the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
“It could have gone higher,” said Anatol Bekkerman, a New York-based Russian-art dealer. “It’s an incredibly rare painting. Perhaps the current situation in Russia is impacting the market. Syria. Ukraine. The decline of the ruble.”