LONDON, ENGLAND.- Sotheby’s tonight held its highest ever value auction in Europe, with a record-breaking total for its Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale (incorporating sales of German & Austrian and Surrealist Art) of £94,911,200 ($173,222,502).

Melanie Clore, Co-Chairman of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Department Worldwide, said: “This was an extraordinary evening – one in which the highest total ever for a sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in Europe was achieved. What was most encouraging about tonight’s sale was that the evening’s success was not pegged on a single picture but, led by the Soutine, the strength of the market was evident throughout. The results this evening provide clear evidence of the depth of the market – the buyers are informed and considered private collectors, or dealers representing private collectors.”

The top lot of the evening, Chaïm Soutine’s L’Homme au Foulard Rouge, of circa 1921, rapidly soared above its estimate of £3,500,000-5,000,000, selling for £8,756,000 to an anonymous buyer. Just 10 years ago, in 1997, this work had sold for £1,541,500 - a fraction of the sum achieved this evening. Richly coloured, and painted with the energy and expressive force that characterises the artist’s most accomplished portraits, the work had been consigned for sale by Mrs Wendell Cherry.

The sale was distinguished by other important consignments from American collections, the highlight being the collection of the late Charles R. Lachman, a founding partner of Revlon cosmetics. This group, which included Renoir’s Les Deux Soeurs (a benchmark of Impressionist portraiture which made £6,852,000) and Raoul Dufy’s La Foire aux Oignons (which sold for a world record £4,052,000), made a total of £15,312,000 against a pre-sale estimate of £9,400,000 – 13,300,000.

Among the Impressionist works that performed well were Edgar Degas’ Trois danseuses jupes violettes of 1898 – one of the artist’s finest pastels from the 1890s – made £4,164,000, Claude Monet’s Maison du Jardinier or Bordighera, La Méditerranée which made £4,052,000 against an estimate of £2,500,000-3,500,000; and one of Alfred Sisley’s most enchanting compositions, Le Loing à Moret, en été of 1891 made a record £2,932,000, - well in excess of its pre-sale estimate of £1,800,000-2,500,000. Painted in the last decade of the artist’s life, this glorious landscape was previously part of the collection of Paul and Mary Haas, of Corpus Christi, Texas.

Works by Edvard Munch were in hot demand. His View from Nordstrand, of 1900-1, made £3,828,000, more than double its top estimate of £1,500,000. A second work, Springtime, made £3,156,000 against a pre-sale estimate of £700,000-900,000, and Fields at Ekely made £692,000 against an estimate of £600,000-800,000. German Expressionist works also performed well. Wassily Kandinsky’s Weilheim-Marienplatz - a strikingly colourful depiction of the main market square in Weilheim, a small town in Upper Bavaria – drew vigorous competition, reaching a final price of £2,484,000 - well in excess of its pre-sale high estimate of £2 million. Works by Alexej von Jawlensky featured strongly among the top prices achieved

in the German & Austrian section of the sale. His Resi of 1909 made £1,364,000, while his Weiblicher Kopf (Helene) made £972,000. Two other works handsomely outstripped their pre-sale estimates, with Stilleben mit Kanne selling for £938,400 (est: £500,000-700,000) and Abstrakter Kopf; Sommerlich selling for £524,000 (est: £300,000-400,000).

The evening was distinguished by exceptionally strong prices for 20th-century sculpture. Torso der Schreitenden (Torso of a Walking Woman) of 1914– a restituted work by German Expressionist sculptor Wilhelm Lehmbruck, one of the artist’s most important sculptures, made a record £1,140,000, outstripping both its estimate (of £250,000-350,000) and the previous record for the artist ($1,212,000) by a wide margin; the Russian Constructivist Naum Gabo’s Linear Construction in Space no. 3, in red, a sold for a record £1,252,000, doubling the pre-sale low estimate; and three works from the estate of American philanthropists Herbert and Nell Singer soared above estimate. These included an elegiac stone sculpture by Amedeo Modigliani, Tête, which made £1,476,000 against a high estimate of £800,000; Jacques Lipchitz’ Sailor with Guitar which made a record £1,050,400 against an estimate of £400,000-£600,000 and Jean Arp’s Sculpture Classsique, which made £1,084,000 against and estimate of £300,000-400,000.

Among the Surrealist works offered this evening was Yves Tanguy’s Les Survenants II of 1942 – an enigmatic landscapes populated by organic forms – which made £1,252,000. Works on paper by Magritte and Picabia also performed very well, as did a Chessboard by Marcel Duchamp, which made £252,000.

6 new artists’ records were established this evening:
• Chaim Soutine, lot 40 - £8,756,000 Previous record £7,848,000
• Raoul Dufy, lot 44 - £4,052,000 Previous record $3,144,000
• Alfred Sisley, lot 49 - £2,932,000 Previous record $3,630,000
• Naum Gabo, lot 72 - £1,252,000 Previous record £320,500
• Wilhelm Lehmbruck, lot 3 - £1,140,000 Previous record $1,212,500
• Jacques Lipchitz, lot 36 - £1,050,400 Previous record $1,540,000.