Over-Achieving Lots Drive London Imp/Mod Sales

Courtesy Christie's Images Ltd.

At least five bidders chased Claude Monet's "Le basin aux nymphéas" (1919) to a record £40,921,250 ($80,451,178; est. £18–24 million).

Courtesy Sotheby's

Gino Severini’s Futurist “Danseuse” (1915) danced to a record-shattering £15,049,250 ($29,615,419; est. £7–10 million).

Pablo Picasso Alberto Giacometti Joan Miro Francis Bacon Henry Moore Wassily Kandinsky Gino Severini Edgar Degas

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Christie’s achieved its highest-ever auction total in Europe on June 24, tallying ₤144,440,500/$283,970,023 and easily vanquishing the pre-sale high estimate of ₤127 million.

Sixty-six of the 81 lots offered found buyers, translating to a 19 percent unsold rate by lot and 5 percent by value. Eight artist records were set, and 34 of the lots fetched over a million pounds (44 were over a million dollars).

The strength of the Euro over other currencies seemed evident as 56 percent of the lots went to Europeans (including Russians), 22 percent to U.K. buyers, 21 percent to Americans, and just 1 percent to Asia. 

The fireworks began early as Pierre Bonnard’s decorative composition Nature morte aux fruits dans le soleil from circa 1931 (est. ₤500–700,000) sold to London dealer Richard Green for ₤1,665,250/$3,273,882 and Paul Signac’s Pontillist seascape from 1887 (est. ₤1.5–2.5 million) sold to London private dealer Ivor Braka for ₤2,953,250/$5,806,090.

But even those scores appeared anemic next to Edgar Degas’s exceptional and early pastel, gouache, and charcoal on paper, Danseuses à la barre from circa 1880 (est. ₤4–6 million), which shot to ₤13,481,250/$26,504,138. London dealer Daniella Luxembourg was the underbidder to the winning anonymous phone bidder. The high result demonstrated a hunger for top-class works and showed that pre-sale estimates have no bearing on the bullish outcomes in today's market.

Christie’s had a distinct advantage over its arch-rival Sotheby’s this week: juicy groups of single-owner material, such as the American estate of J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller. Christie’s made a pretty bundle on the guaranteed property, with all 17 lots selling for a total of ₤67,540,050/$132,783,738, eclipsing the pre-sale high estimate of ₤52.6 million.

Part of the deal with the Millers included importing the New York–based star auctioneer Christopher Burge for that portion of the sale. Burge proved his mettle by extracting bids in his fast, humorous, and unassailably smooth manner, but the massive price he achieved for the Millers' large-scale, late, and abstract Claude Monet waterlily composition, Le basin aux nymphéas from 1919 (est. ₤18-24 million) — a record ₤40,921,250/$80,451,178, coaxed from among at least five bidders — was still shocking. The work smashed and practically doubled the previous Monet mark — set by Le pont du chemin de fer a Argenteuil from 1873, which made $41,481,000 at Christie’s New York last May — and became the sixth most expensive painting ever sold at auction, trailing two Picassos, a Gustav Klimt, a Francis Bacon, and a Vincent van Gogh.

The anonymous buyer, seated in the front row of the salesroom, seemed a bit mystified by the auction process, with Burge patiently explaining her place in the queue with body language and phrasing as the bids steadily grew at ₤500,000 increments: “It’s against you, Madam.”

The lesson seemed to work, and London art adviser Tania Buckrell Pos of Arts & Management International nabbed for her client the rare and luminously green Monet, one of only four of that scale signed and dated by the artist. Of the remaining three, one is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, another was cut in two sometime before World War II, and the third remains in a private collection. This one last appeared at auction at the old Sotheby’s Parke Bernet in New York in May 1971, when it was sold by storied art collector and philanthropist Norton Simon for $320,000.

“I’m delighted my client is a true connoisseur,” said Pos, buttonholed moments after the sale. “The market continues to prove itself, and people will pay for quality.”

Another high achiever from the Miller trove was Henry Moore’s 82-inch-long bronze Draped Reclining Woman from 1957–58 (est. ₤2.5–3.5 million), which sold for a record ₤4,297,250/$8,448,394.

And speaking of women, a double mark was set when Russian avant-garde artist Natalia Goncharova’s fiercely colored and dramatically abstract Les Fleurs from circa 1912 (est. ₤3.5–4.5 million) — hailing from the Alfred and Elisabeth Hoh collection — sold to a telephone bidder for a record ₤5,529,250/$10,870,506. In addition to an artist high, it also claimed a world record for any female artist ever sold at auction.

Sotheby's
Sotheby’s June 25 evening sale was a decidedly smaller affair, with just 55 lots on offer and a lack of what one might describe as blockbuster material.

Despite that handicap, the firm realized its second strongest European result to date in the category, tallying a robust ₤102,246,500/$201,210,887 — a total accompanied by a svelte 9 percent buy-in rate by lot and 6 percent by value. It also hurdled its pre-sale high estimate of ₤95.7 million.

Overall, five lots exceeded ₤5 million and 25 made over a million pounds. Two artist records were set, and a geographic breakdown by lots sold shows that 70 percent went to Europe (with both the U.K. and Russia included), 28 percent to the U.S., and 2 percent to "other."

Unlike at Christie’s, it seemed that a huge proportion of the bidding came from telephones manned by a small army of Sotheby’s specialists and client service providers, which dampened the theater or spectacle on the floor. Still, the house pulled off a tightly organized sale with barely any casualties, and of the five works that didn’t sell, only two — paintings by Joan Miro and Alberto Giacometti — carried financial guarantees.

The evening got off to a cracking start with Wassily Kandinsky’s early color-charged composition Park von St. Cloud – mit Reiter (Park of St. Cloud with Horseman) from 1906 (est. ₤350–450,000), which sold over the phone for ₤1,161,250/$2,228,000.

Chaim Soutine’s sultry expressionist portrait Jeune Polonaise from 1929 (est. ₤650–850,000) made ₤2,169,250/$4,268,867, and Paul Cezanne’s petite yet potent still life Verre et Poires, from 1879–80 (est. ₤2.5–3.5 million), sold to another telephone bidder for £4,073,250/$8,015,749, a result that certainly must have satisfied the seller, who bought the work at Christie’s New York in November 2003 for $455,500.

A familiar-to-market Claude Monet also found a new home as the breezy and festive impression La Plage a Trouville from 1870 (est. ₤7–10 million) squeaked by its pre-sale estimates to earn ₤7,657,250/$15,068,702. The present seller bought it at Sotheby’s London back in June 2000 for ₤11 million/$16,566,547; the work last appeared at Sotheby’s New York in November 2006, when it failed to sell against a $16.5–20 million estimate.

Of the seven Pablo Picassos offered, a dynamic interpretation of his lover and muse, Tete de Femme (Dora Maar) from 1939 (est. ₤3–5 million), led the pack at a buoyant ₤7,881,250/$15,509,512.

Sculpture also proved its mettle, led by Trois Hommes Qui Marchent I (1948), Alberto Giacometti’s alienated street scene cast in bronze and from an edition of 6 (est. ₤4–6 million), which sold to another telephone bidder for ₤9,449,250/$18,595,179.

But the topper of the evening was the colorful and uber-decorative cover lot, Gino Severini’s Futurist confection Danseuse from 1915 (est. ₤7–10 million), which danced to a record-shattering ₤15,049,250/$29,615,419. In addition to trouncing the long-held mark for Severini’s Mare danzatrice (1912–13), which made $3.6 million in May 1990 at the storied Lydia Winston Malbin sale at Sotheby’s New York, it also proved to be the week’s second-most-expensive artwork (though still tens of millions behind Christie’s Monet).

“People like colorful, decorative pictures,” said Melanie Clore, Sotheby’s co-chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art worldwide. “Works like the Severini are appealing to a much broader, global market.”

Judd Tully is Editor at Large of Art+Auction.