most expensive art

$106 Million Picasso Sale Sets New World Record for Most Expensive Work of Art

Last month The Classicist broke the news that a rarely-seen Picasso was expected to fetch up to $90 million at Christie's landmark Evening Sale of Impressionist and Modern Art, which took place yesterday in New York. Now the results are in and the painting, Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust (above) dated 1932, from the Collection of Mrs. Sidney F. Brody, was sold for a staggering $106.5 million to an unidentified telephone bidder, breaking the previous world record for any work of art sold at auction (set back in February when a Giacometti sculpture brought in $104.3 million). Yesterday's sale achieved a stunning $335.5 million in total. The Evening Sale portion of the Brody Collection also became the highest total for a single-owner sale offered at Christies New York, surpassing the landmark sale of the Collection of Victor and Sally Ganz sale in 1997. The 27 lots from the Brody Collection achieved $224.2 million.

Marc Porter, Chairman of Christie's Americas, commented: "This was a stellar night for Christie's and for the art market. The sale was led by exceptional prices for works by Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti and Henri Matisse from the Brody Collection, one of the greatest private collections to come to market. In addition, we witnessed great depth of bidding and strong results for important works from other American and European collections, including additional paintings by Picasso and works by Giacometti and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. We are honored to have been entrusted with so many remarkable works this season, and we are delighted to have delivered such positive results, including three new world auction records for Picasso, Georges Braque, and Jean-François Raffaelli."

Tags: art market, auction record, Christies, Giacometti, Henri Matisse, modern art, most expensive art, Pablo Picasso, Picasso, world record

Giacometti Sculpture Sets New Record As Most Expensive Art

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Art

Wow, when I wrote about the upcoming auction of the Giacometti sculpture, L'Homme Qui Marche I, last month I had no idea that someone would go crazy for the bronze cast sculpture. But the results are crazy indeed. This sculpture, which was once part of the corporate collection of Germany's Dresdner Bank and acquired by Commerzbank when it took over Dresdner Bank last year, sold for an incredible £65,001,250 ($104,327,006) at the Sotheby's London Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale . It was only estimated at £12-18 million but it managed to set a world record as the most expensive piece of art ever to sell at auction breaking a record set way back in 2004 by Picasso's Garçon à la Pipe, 1905, which sold for $104.1 million.

The sale is good news for Commerzbank and selected German museums which will also benefit from the sale. The sculpture was executed in 1960 and cast in bronze in a numbered edition of 6 plus 4 artist's proofs. This one was cast in 1961 and is inscribed Alberto Giacometti and numbered 2/6 and with the foundry mark Susse Fondeur Paris. It seem Giacometti is in vogue lately. Last year his "L'Homme Qui Chavire" made the list of top pieces sold in 2009 in the ninth position with a price of $19.4 million.

Art Info reports that there was heated bidding both by phone and in person. While some thought the Giacometti might beat estimates no one imagined it would go for quite so much money. No information on the winning bidder has been revealed.

Tags: art auction, ArtAuction, giacometti, most expensive art, most expensive sculpture, MostExpensiveArt, MostExpensiveSculpture, sothebys