Finding the help of strong
Asian biddings and thanks to a record for a Max Beckmann painting during its
sale of Impressionist and Modern art held in London on June 28,2017, Christie's
edged past Sotheby's with a total of 149.5 million GBP, just above its lower
overall estimate.
30 of the 32 lots offered for
sale were sold but half of them went at or below their low estimates. Max
Beckmann's Bids'Hell (1937-38) from the collection of Richard Feigen sold in
favour of Larry Gagosian, presumably for
the New York collector Leon Black, at a record price of 36 million GBP. The previous record for the artist had
been set at 22,6 million USD for his self-portrait with horn (1938) when bought
in New York in 2001.
The disappointment of the sale
was Egon Schiele's "Individual Houses with Mountains" (1915)
estimated between 20 and 30 million GBP which failed to attract any bidder
while Pablo Picasso's portrait of Marie-Thérèse, "Femme écrivant"
(1934) went for 34.9 million in favour
of a Chinese bidder.
Other Asian Biddings were on
Vincent Van Gogh's "Le Moissonneur"
(after Millet-1889), a work bought in 1995 for 2.5 million GBP, which
fetched 22 million GBP, Claude Monet's "Weeping Willow" (1918-19)
sold for 8.9 million (well under its lower estimate of 15 million) and "Le
Chemin Creux" (1882) which went for 5.6 million, well over its high estimate
of 3 million.
Modigliani's Cariatide (1913) only
went at 6.9 million GBP against a low estimate of 6 million. A grid composition
by the Belgian de Stijl artist Georges Vantongerloo sold for 1.1 million,
double its pre-sale estimate of £350,000–450,000 and a rare painting by the
Dada artist Hannah
Höch sold above estimate for a record 1.1 million GBP.
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