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With 43 works on offer, only three failed to sell, while
Christie's exceeded its high pre-sale estimate by more than $40
million.
The result capped two weeks of sales that have brought in well
over $2 billion at Christie's and rival Sotheby's, with
Christie's boasting a new record for history's top auction price
with Picasso's "Les femmes d'Alger (Version 'O')," which fetched
$179.4 million. Christie's' alone took in more than $1.3 billion
during the course of its Monday and Wednesday evening sales.
"This sale marks a record-setting week for the global auction
market," said Brooke Lampley, head of Impressionist and modern
art of Thursday's strong result.
Officials said international demand by a growing pool of
relatively new collectors competing with more established ones
for a fixed supply of masterpieces had driven prices at the art
market's top echelons to record levels.
Sotheby's said Asian buyers had accounted for more than 30
percent of its evening sales, most notably van Gogh’s "L'Allée
des Alyscamps," which sold for $66.3 million last week to a
mainland Chinese buyer.
The auction house logged its second-best results ever at both
its Impressionist/modern and post-war/contemporary sales.
The highlight at Christie's on Thursday, as expected, was
Mondrian's "Composition No. III, with Red, Blue, Yellow, and
Black," which soared far beyond its estimate of $15 million to
$25 million as six international bidders competed.
At $50.6 million, it obliterated Mondrian's auction record of
$27.6 million, which had stood since 2009.
Modigliani's canvas "Beatrice Hastings" also did well, selling
for $16.1 million against a high estimate of $10 million, while
Fernand Léger's "Le corsage rouge" similarly outperformed
expectations, selling for just under $17 million including
Christie's commission of just over 12 percent.
(Editing by Michael Perry)
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