The previous auction record for Modigliani was $70.7 million, established at Sotheby’s a year ago for a carved stone head of a woman.
Courbet’s painting of a sleeping nude fetched $15.3 million, quadrupling the Impressionist artist’s previous auction record. Courbet’s 1862 canvas, “Femme nue couchee,” was estimated at $15 million to $25 million.
Lichtenstein’s comic book-style “Nurse” painting fetched $95.4 million, also an artist auction record. Although the final price, which includes buyer’s premium, surpassed the presale target of more than $80 million, only one bidder wanted the work, a client of Laura Paulson, Christie’s senior international director in the postwar and contemporary art department. The work’s value increased about 5,500 percent in the 20 years since it last sold at auction. Lichtenstein’s previous auction record of $56.1 million was achieved in May 2013 at Christie’s in New York.
Gauguin’s Sculpture
Paul Gauguin’s carved wood sculpture of a woman, “Therese” (1902-1903), fetched $30.9 million, surpassing the high estimate of $25 million. It was pursued by Stephane C. Connery, a private art dealer, and Paul Gray, director of Richard Gray Gallery in Chicago and New York whose clients include hedge-fund manager Kenneth Griffin. The winner was a client of Conor Jordan, Christie’s deputy chairman of Impressionist and modern art in New York.
Great works that haven’t 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, underscoring just how risky guarantees can be. One of the unsold guaranteed lots was De Kooning’s “Woman,” estimated at $14 million to $18 million.
Christie’s has jammed its Impressionist, modern and contemporary auctions into a single week, a strategy that worked for the company in May when it walked away with $1.7 billion, almost twice rival Sotheby’s tally. Sotheby’s last week sold $377 million in its own hybrid 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 million, cost four times less.
“It was straight forward: if the work was overestimated it didn’t sell,” Jennings said about the Christie’s sale. “The market has plateaued. It’s leveled off at a very high level.”