|
 Sales at the auction topped 178.6 million pounds, with 10 of
the 51 lots on offer selling for more than 10 million pounds.
Among them was an Edgar Degas cast bronze of a ballerina that
sold for 15.8 million pounds, above its top estimate of 15
million pounds, setting an auction record for a sculpture by the
French artist, Sotheby's said.
The Sotheby's auction eclipsed the 71.88 million pounds that
arch-rival Christie's tallied at its auction of Impressionist
and Modernist works the evening before and underscored the
strength in the market.
Two weeks of sales in New York in May brought in well over $2
billion at both houses.
"To follow our highest totals for Impressionist and Modern Art
sales in New York, with another sensational sale in London,
emphasizes the strength of what is undoubtedly a truly global
market," Melanie Clore, Chairman, Sotheby’s Europe & Co-Chairman
Worldwide, Impressionist & Modern Art, said in a statement.
Klimt’s “Portrait of Gertrud Loew — Gertha Felsovanyi” from 1902
was recently restituted to the heirs of the Viennese woman who
sat for the portrait, which was left in the Austrian capital
when its Jewish owners fled the city as the Nazis rose to power.
[to top of second column] |
It was the subject of what Sotheby's said was a 10-minute bidding
battle in which the price went up slowly by 100,000-pound
increments, but eventually reached the second highest price for a
portrait by the artist at auction.
Also sold was the first work to come to auction from the collection
of Cornelius Gurlitt, the son of a Nazi-era art dealer whose vast
secret hoard of paintings - including items looted by the Nazis -
was discovered in Munich in 2012.
Max Lieberman’s "Zwei Reiter am Strand nach links" (Two Riders on a
Beach) sold for 1.87 million pounds, or more than triple the top
pre-auction estimate of 550,000 pounds.
Other star pieces at the auction included Manet's "Le Bar aux
Folies-Bergere" which sold near the low end of estimates at 16.4
million pounds, and Kazimir Malevich's "Suprematism, 18th
Construction" which sold for 21.4 million pounds, also just above
the low end of its estimate of 20-30 million pounds.
(Writing by Michael Roddy; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
