News

Despite five artist records set and a 315.4 million USD total, Sotheby's sale of Impressionist and Modern art was not as successful as expected since Marsden Hartley's Pre-War Pageant (1913), estimated at about 30 million did not reach the 24 million reserve price, which seemed exaggerated in view of the fact that the artist's record set at Christie's in 2008 for « Lighthouse » (1915) only stood at 6.3 million.

Of the 65 lots in the evening's sale 15 were bought in, with Sotheby's achieving a sell-through rate of 77 percent. However, the auction house recorded some good results, notably for Rene Magritte's Le Principe du Plaisir (1937 which fetched a record price of 26.8 million with premium against a15 million to 20 million

Egon Schiele's Dämmernde Stadt (Die Kleine Stadt II) (City in Twilight (The Small City II)) (1913), a townscape of his mother's birthplace surpassed its 18 million high estimate to reach 24.6 million with premium.

One of two works appearing in the sale after being restituted to the heirs of German art dealer Alfred Flechtheim earlier this year, Oskar Kokoschka's Joseph de Montesquiou-Fezensac (1910) quintupled the artist's previous auction record with a 20.4 million USD bid. The other work was Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's Das Soldatenbad (Artillerymen), which sold for nearly 22 million.

Wassily Kandinsky's Improvisation Auf Mahogoni (Improvisation on Mahogany) (1910) which made its first appearance at auction with a $15 million to $20 million estimate sold for 24.2 million with premium. This work was one of three Kandinsky paintings to sell beyond the 20 million mark during the sale. On the Theme of the Last Judgment (1913) went for 22.9 million, and Le Rond Rouge (1939) was hammered down at 20.6 million with premium.

Acquired in 2001 at Sotheby's London for 1.1 million, a double-sided work by Ludwig Meidner, featuring Apokalytpische Landschaft (Apocalyptic Landscape) on the recto,and Junger Mann Mit Strohhut (Young Man with Straw Hat) on the verso (both 1912) fetched a record bid of  14.1 million with premium while Rufino Tamayo's  Paisaje Del Paricutín (Volcán en Erupción) more than doubled its estimate to culminate at a hammer price of 3.4 million.