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Sotheby's had estimated "Nu couché (sur le côté
gauche)" to sell for in excess of $150 million, which made the
1917 oil painting the highest-estimated work of art in auction
history.
But in merely meeting expectations and failing to set a record
even for a Modigliani, the canvas fell short of a handful of
recently auctioned trophy works, most notably Leonardo da
Vinci's "Salvator Mundi," which soared to $450.3 million at
rival Christie's in November after several top-tier collectors
competed furiously.
That work carried a pre-sale estimate of about $100 million.
Sotheby's was quick to note, while the auction was still live,
that "Nu couché" had achieved the highest price of any work in
the 274-year-old auction house's history.
And in a sign of soaring prices at the art market's highest
echelons, the same work sold in 2003 for $27 million.
But it could not be denied that only a handful of collectors at
most bid for the work, which fell short of the $170.4 million
record for a Modigliani set in 2015.
Officials were relegated to characterizing the sale as
"measured," a tacit admission that it was devoid of the
free-spending frenzy that has marked recent auctions at both
Sotheby's and Christie's.
"It was not an exuberant room," Simon Shaw, co-head of
Impressionist and modern art, told Reuters afterward. But he
added that "it was an ordered, efficient sale which achieved a
total within its estimated range."
Indeed the auction took in $318.3 million, just beating the
$307.4 million low pre-sale estimate. Of the 45 lots on offer,
71 percent found buyers.
Other highlights included Pablo Picasso's "Le Repos," which
achieved $36.9 million and beat its high estimate of $35
million, and Claude Monet's "Matinee sur la Seine," which
fetched $20.55 million, at the low end of the $18 million to $25
million estimate.
Georgia O'Keefe's "Lake George with White Birch" soared to $11.3
million, or nearly twice the high estimate, but another Picasso,
"Femme au chien" estimated at $12 million to $18 million, failed
to sell when no bids exceeded $11 million.
The spring auctions continue on Tuesday when Christie's holds
its Impressionist and modern art sale.
(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Darren Schuettler)
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