Severini Scores Record $29M at Sotheby's

LONDON—The Impressionist/Modern market continued to surge at Sotheby’s this evening as a rare and large-scale Futurist painting by Gino Severini, Danseuse from 1915, sold to an anonymous buyer for a record-shattering £15,049,250 ($29,615,419). At least five bidders chased the flashy and decidedly decorative work, the evening’s cover lot, whose pre-sale estimate was £7–10 million.

The sale eclipsed the artist’s previous mark, set at Sotheby’s New York in May 1990, when Mare Danzatrice from 1912–13 fetched $3.6 million.

“People like colorful, decorative pictures,” said Sotheby’s Imp/Mod head, Melanie Clore. “We choreographed the sale tonight and didn’t bulk it up.”

Overall, the evening realized the house’s second-highest result in the category in Europe, with a total of £102,246,500 ($201,210,887), exceeding the presale high estimate of £95.7 million. Five pieces fetched sums over £5 million, and only five of the 55 works offered failed to sell.

Judd Tully is Editor at Large of Art+Auction.