LONDON.- Sotheby’s series of Impressionist & Modern Art sales in London this week realised a combined total of £140,156,325 / $225,190,077 /€165,107,883 – surpassing the pre-sale estimate* for the series (£95,924,000 - £136,388,000).

Helena Newman, Chairman, Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Europe, commented: “Over the course of the week’s charged sales, we have seen a hungry, collector driven market competing avidly for works of the highest calibre. The depth of bidding was remarkable: 920 buyers registered to participate in what proved to be an extremely spirited series of auctions, punctuated by a succession of newly established records. This ranks as the third-highest total ever for Sotheby’s series of Impressionist & Modern art sales and is a significant indicator of the vitality of this area of the market.”

Commenting on the sales, Melanie Clore, Chairman, Sotheby’s Europe, said: “The top two prices this week for Impressionist & Modern art at auction** were achieved in Sotheby’s salerooms, demonstrating the power of bringing exceptional works to buyers with an appreciation of the finest examples of works in this category. Our strategy of holding separate sales in order to offer the works in Looking Closely in the context of its elegant entirety clearly appealed, and the extraordinary depth of bidding from all corners of the globe amounted to Sotheby’s achieving the highest sales total in the category in London this week.”

The top two prices of the week for Impressionist and Modern art were both set at Sotheby’s:

• Top lot of the week: Picasso’s iconic 1932 painting of Marie-Thérèse Walter, La Lecture, sold for £25,241,250 / $40,711,612 / €29,744,296, more than double the low estimate (est. £12 – 18 million/ $18.5-27.8 million)

• Second highest price of the week: Pursued by no fewer than 9 prospective buyers, Portrait de Paul Eluard - a masterpiece by Salvador Dalí - soared above its estimate of £3.5—5m (€4.2–6m) to sell to an anonymous bidder on the phone for £13,481,250 (€15,901,108). This price triples the record established for the artist earlier this week in London (£4.1m). It also stands a new record price for any Surrealist work of art sold at auction.

Surrealist Art
Sotheby’s led the week in sales of Surrealist Art with a total of £26,060,150 / $41,386,807 / €30,726,922. In addition to the exceptional record achieved by the Dalí, a new auction record was achieved for a work on paper by Surrealist artist René Magritte on Tuesday night with the sale of Le Maître d’École for £2,505,250 / $4,040,718 / €2,952,187. The gouache on paper depicting the artist’s iconic bowler-hatted man fetched a price more than double the pre-sale estimate (est. £800,000 – 1.2 million) and double the previous record for a work on paper.

Further records and strong prices:

• Record for Julio Gonzalez broken twice over in the same night: During the Looking Closely sale, the world auction record for Julio Gonzalez was broken twice in quick succession as two remarkable, rare sculptures by the artist soared above estimate. Masque My sold for £2,729,250 / $4,390,817 / €3,219,145 eclipsing the previous record for the artist by a good margin. Soon after, a second work by the artist, Masque ‘Ombre et Lumière’, nearly doubled the record established just moments earlier, selling for £4,633,250 / $7,453,973 / €5,464,909.

• Alberto Giacometti’s striking portrait of his wife, Portrait d’Annette au pull-over rouge from 1961 inspired competitive bidding driving the price to £2,729,250 / $4,390,817 / 3,219,145

Geographical breakdown:
Of the bids received this week, 26% came from the Americas, 10% came from Asia, and rest (62%) came from Europe and the rest of the world

High percentage of lots sold above estimate:
Over 93%of the sold lots in Evening sale achieved prices at or above their estimate; 65% of the lots sold in the Day sale achieved prices above estimate; 75% of the lots sold in the Looking Closely sale achieved prices above estimate

• Average lot value for the Evening sale: £2.15 million
• Average lot value for the Looking Closely sale: £1.6 million

*Estimates do not include buyer’s premium