News

Sotheby's sale of Impressionist and modern held in New York on November 4, 2014 realized $422 million to equal its overall high estimate and become the highest-ever auction total in its history.

The sale was 79 percent sold by volume, with 58 out of 73 lots gone realizing 95% in value but some works did not meet expectations. 

Giacometti's Chariot, sold for just 100,965,000 USD  (inclusive of buyer's premium)after bidding started at 80 million and lagged for sometime before reaching 90 million. This was the second-highest auction result for a work by Giacometti and the second-highest price for any sculpture at auction.

Sotheby's dubbed Chariot perhaps the most important bronze the artist created after recovering from an accident in 1938 in a Paris hospital.

Modigliani's carved stone Tête (1911–12) sold for a record of 70.8 million USD (inclusive of buyer's premium) well above its pre-sale estimate. The previous record for a sculpture by Modigliani  stood at 52.6 million, a price achieved in 2010 at Christie's Paris.

Tête was created from a single block of limestone called pierre d'Euville from eastern France when Modigliani received some precious advices from Brancusi to produce it.

Meanwhile, Vincent van Gogh's 1890 painting Still Life, Vase with Daisies and Poppies (1890), sold for 61.7 million USD, above its pre-sale estimate after bidding started at 23 million. Sotheby's had described this painting as the most important still life by Van Gogh to appear at auction in more than two decades.

Three works by Claude Monet were offered in this sale. "Alice Hoschedé au jardin" (1881) sold for 33,8 million USD followed by "Sous les Peupliers" which went for 20,3 million and "Eglise de Vernon,Soleil" which fteched 7,8 million.

Kandinsky's Diagonale (1930), an oil on cardboard, fetched a disappointing 1.5 million USD against an estimate of $1.2–1.8 million, well under the 2 million USD paid by its owner at Christie's in 2007.

Picasso's Verre et pichet (1944) sold for 2.85 million USD, 150,000 less than the price it achieved at Christie's in 2007.