Sotheby's Impressionist, Modern & Surrealist Art Sales This Week in London Total $143.7 Million

LONDON, Feb. 27, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Sotheby's (NYSE: BID) two-day sale series of Impressionist, Modern and Surrealist Art achieved a combined total of $143.7 million, above the low estimate of $105 million.  The series was led by the Evening Sale, which achieved $92.2 million with an impressive 90.9% sell through rate. Participation across the sales came from a record 51 countries, and the number of bidders from across Asia was up by 50% in the Evening Sale.

WATCH THE BIDDING BATTLES FOR $36 MILLION MONET AND
OTHER MASTERPIECES IN LONDON

James Mackie, Head of Impressionist & Modern Art in Sotheby's London, said: "Collectors have embarked into the year's first major season of sales in London with a clear appetite both for top level rarities, and for the wide range of works to be found in our Day Sale. It was exciting to see clients from all corners of the globe proving very active ? with participants hailing from 51 countries, the most ever seen in this category at Sotheby's London"

Below is an overview of the sales and highlights that drove this week's results.

Claude Monet
Le Palais Ducal (1908)
Sold for $36.2 million ? Auction Record for a Venice View

Monet's shimmering view of the spectacular Doge's Palace made its auction debut, having been in the same family collection since it was acquired in 1926. Selling to an anonymous client for 36.2 million, the pristine painting was hotly underbid by two further bidders, one of whom was represented on the phone by Sotheby's Managing Director of Japan.

Egon Schiele
Triestiner Fischerboot (1912)
Sold for $14 million

Offered at auction for the first time, having been in a private collection since 1962, Triestiner Fischerboot holds a unique position in Schiele's oeuvre, as the artist transforms a simple fishing boat into an avant-garde pictorial marvel. The square-format painting sailed to an above-estimate $14 million, with strong interest from Asia.

SURREALIST ART
René Magritte
L'Etoile du matin (1938)
Sold for $7 million

A section of the Evening Sale devoted to Surrealist Art brought a total of $18.1 million and was led by Magritte's bold and beautifully painted juxtaposition of the profile of a Native American with that of its beloved wife Georgette, which made its first appearance at auction, having been acquired a year after its execution by a renowned Belgian couple who were friends and patrons of the artist.  Painted during one of Magritte's most innovative periods, when he painted some of his most important works, including the record-breaking Le principe du Plaisir, L'Étoile du matin sold for an above-estimate $7 million.  

IMPRESSIONIST & MODERN ART DAY SALE
Auction Total: $28.4 million

Théo van Rysselberghe
À l'ombre des pins (1905)
Sold for $1.3 million

Effortlessly conveying the blissful light and colours of the Mediterranean seaside, this vibrant painting by Van Rysselberghe met with a flurry of bids to sell for over $1 million, doubling its pre-sale estimate and leading the Day Sale. The bucolic work showcases a harmonious combination of the landscape, which dominated the artist's earlier work, with the female nude, a motif he passionately began to undertake around the turn of the century, inspired by the work of Botticelli.

About Sotheby's
Sotheby's has been uniting collectors with world-class works of art since 1744. Sotheby's became the first international auction house when it expanded from London to New York (1955), the first to conduct sales in Hong Kong (1973), India (1992) and France (2001), and the first international fine art auction house in China (2012). Today, Sotheby's presents auctions in 10 different salesrooms, including New York, London, Hong Kong and Paris, and Sotheby's BidNow program allows visitors to view all auctions live online and place bids from anywhere in the world. Sotheby's offers collectors the resources of Sotheby's Financial Services, the world's only full-service art financing company, as well as the collection, artist, estate & foundation advisory services of its subsidiary, Art Agency, Partners. Sotheby's presents private sale opportunities in more than 70 categories, including S|2, the gallery arm of Sotheby's Global Fine Art Division, and three retail businesses: Sotheby's Wine, Sotheby's Diamonds, and Sotheby's Home, the online marketplace for interior design. Sotheby's has a global network of 80 offices in 40 countries and is the oldest company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (BID).

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Contact: London | +44 207 293 6000 | Mitzi Mina | [email protected] | Matthew Floris | [email protected]

SOURCE Sotheby's