The fall auctions in New York kicked off with a Mondrian record

The traditional autumn sales of major New York auction houses began with a record price for a work by Dutch painter Piet Mondrian (1872-1944).

The 1930 work “Composition No. II” went to an Asian bidder for $51 million (about €49 million), auction house Sotheby’s said Tuesday evening (local time). Never paid more for a work by Mondrian at auction A total of approximately $390 million was raised during the opening night.

The autumn auctions are expected to continue throughout the week and many more records could be broken. Auction house Christie’s had already presented and auctioned off the large art collection of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who passed away in 2018, for the record amount of about 1.6 billion dollars.