Published on Thursday February 7, 2008
Sotheby’s Evening Sale of Impressionist & Modern Art tonight realized £116,699,900 ($230,517,312) – considerably in excess of the pre-sale estimate of £81,090,000 - 112,110,000. The total realized is the highest for any sale ever staged by Sotheby’s in Europe and the highest total in this category this year. Five lots sold for over £5 million – the highest number of lots ever sold at this level in any European auction; 30 lots were sold for over one million pounds and 47 lots were sold for over $1 million. Four new artist’s records were established, including those for Alexej von Jawlensky and Franz Marc.
Commenting on the sale, Melanie Clore, Co-Chairman Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Department Worldwide, said: “We are thrilled with tonight’s results, which demonstrate the strong hunger in the market for quality works. The broad international buying from Russia and Asia as well as Europe and the Americas was very much in evidence this evening. The sale was carefully edited with the best offerings across a range of categories, and buyers responded with great enthusiasm.”
The top price achieved this evening was for Franz Marc’s Weidende Pferde III (lot 13), which made £12,340,500 ($24,376,190 ) – doubling the pre-sale low estimate of £6,000,000, and exceeding the record price established at Sotheby’s in New York in November last year (when Der Wasserfall sold for $20,201,000). A magnificent museum quality work, it is the only example from the artist’s iconic paintings of horses still in private hands.
Source: Sotheby's