The entire Impressionist and Modern evening sale was supposed to bring in more than £90m for Christie’s. The works being sold from the Miller collection were supposed to bring in more than £40m. Well, the Monet water lilies from the Miller collection alone managed to do that. Going for £40.9m ($80.5m), Le bassin aux nymphéas, 1919, well exceeded it’s £18m – £24m estimate and set an artist record for Monet. It is now the second most expensive painting sold at a European auction. Tania Buckwell Pos, director of AMI arts consultancy, bought the painting from the front row of the saleroom while on the phone with a client. She declined to give her client’s name or nationality.
I think the demand for this work of art has proved that the Impressionist market is far from dead. For great works, collectors will be willing to part with large sums of money.
To get the Monet, Ms. Buckwell Pos outbid Brett Gorby, a specialist in contemporary art at Christie’s New York, who was also on the phone. However, Mr. Gorby was the successful bidder for Degas’ Danseuses à la barre, which sold at £13.5m ($26.5m), more than doubling its high estimate of £6m.
The early fauvist portrait by Matisse, La Pudeur (L’italienne), 1906, failed to reach its estimate of £3m – £4m, selling for only £2.5m ($4.9m). Still, the sale did incredibly well overall, achieving £144.4m ($284.5m) for Christie’s, the highest ever for a European auction.
5 responses so far ↓
L M A // June 25, 2008 at 3:09 pm |
That WAS a gorgeous Monet and it was in Columbus, Indiana! Somehow I don’t think it is heading back to the cornfields of the Midwest!
wpm1955 // June 26, 2008 at 9:58 pm |
A few years back I heard the Japanese were buying up a lot of paintings. Is it mostly Europeans, or Americans, or who, buying the most paintings these days? I’m just curious.
Madame Monet
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artmarketmistress // June 29, 2008 at 8:11 pm |
The Japanese were very interested in Impressionist paintings in the late 1980s and bought up a large number of them. However, when the Japanese commodities markets began to crash, the Japanese owners sold (most) of the Impressionist paintings quickly (and at a large loss), which helped lead to the art market crash in 1991.
Nowadays, most collectors are European, Russian, American, and Middle Eastern. It’s a very global market and new collectors seem to be arriving all the time.
wpm1955 // July 1, 2008 at 10:09 am |
So, the paintings which the Japanese sold, generally which nationalities were buying those particular impressionist paintings? Was it mostly Middle Eastern, or Russian, or who?
And thanks for answering my question, wow!
Madame Monet
artmarketmistress // July 1, 2008 at 11:13 am |
Back then, they were mostly bought by American and Europeans, both collectors and museums.
And I’m glad I could answer it!