Auction houses, boosted by China and Asia, hope to break records and raise billions of dollars during this new auction season.
The masterpiece of the French impressionist painter Claude Monet, Water Lily Pondwas sold at auction for $74 million on Thursday in New York, during an exceptional evening at Christie’s which achieved $640 million in sales.
Christie’s, owned by the Artémis holding of French billionaire François Pinault, and its competitor Sotheby’s, which belongs to Franco-Israeli billionaire Patrick Drahi, are in the middle of the fall auction season, from November 7 to 15. The two houses hope to break records and generate billions of dollars.
“A record sum”
Sotheby’s, which sold a Picasso on Wednesday evening (Woman with watch – 1932) for 139 million dollars – the second most expensive work for the Spanish master who died in 1973 – has already reached more than 400 million dollars in auction sales this week. Christie’s is at 748 million, including 640 on Thursday evening alone.
The painting “Woman with a Watch” (1932) by Pablo Picasso exhibited at Sotheby’s in New York during the auction on November 8, 2023. (ANGELA WEISS / AFP)
Since 2017, this is a record sum accumulated in a single evening of sales of works of art belonging to different collectors, Christie’s welcomed in a press release.
The highlight of the evening, Water Lily Pond (1917-1919) by Claude Monet, estimated at 65 million dollars, went for 74 million under the hammer of the star auctioneer of Christie’s, the international president of the house, Jussi Pylkkänen, whose last appearance at the headquarters of the Rockeffeler Center in Manhattan.
The manager, who had announced that he was leaving after four decades of career, was applauded standing by wealthy collectors and art lovers in a crowded and ultra chic room, typical of these New York evenings.
Cézanne, Gauguin, Renoir, Pissarro, Monet, Sisley, Degas
Three paintings by Paul Cézanne, including Fruits and ginger pot sold for nearly $39 million, were sold for the benefit of the Langmatt Museum in Baden, Switzerland, according to Christie’s.
“The sale – a last chance solution – was a painful step for us,” recognized Markus Stegmann, the director of this museum which found itself in great financial difficulty, in a press release.
Thanks to the amount of the sale, the future of the museum is assured, “therefore, the foundation and management of the museum are relieved”, specifies a press release from Langmatt, which has a collection of around fifty remarkable works by Gauguin, Renoir, Pissarro, Monet, Sisley, Degas and Cassatt. He also has six works by Cézanne remaining.
The painting “Untiled”, by American painter Joan Mitchell, during the presentation of Christie’s November 9 sale, October 27, 2023 in New York (JOHN ANGELILLO/UPI/SHUTTERSTOCK/ / SIPA)
Other individual records were broken Thursday evening: the work of the 20th century American expressionist painter Richard Diebenkornn, Recollections of a Visit to Leningradwas sold for 46 million dollars and Untitledby his compatriot Joan Mitchell, went for 29 million.
In a context of international crises, the auction houses Sotheby’s and Christie’s are delighted with a healthy art and luxury market, driven by China and Asia, and “sans indication” slowdown after an exceptional 2022 vintage, with more than $16 billion in cumulative sales.
2023-11-11 10:25:38
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