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Klimt, Malevich lead art auctions in London

Manet - Le Bar aux Folies-Bergère

Édouard Manet
‘Le Bar aux Folies-Bergère’ (first version, 1881)
£16.9 /$26.8m / €23.8m (est. £15-20m) at Sotheby’s.

Klimt, Malevich lead art auctions in London Sotheby’s and Christie’s auctions of Impressionist and Modern art in London, June 2015, realized a total of nearly £250 million. The top lots were Gustav Klimt’s ‘Portrait of Gertrud Loew -Gertha Felsőványi’ and Kazimir Malevich’s ‘Suprematism, 18th Construction’.]]>

June 25, 2015, source: Sotheby’s and Christie’s

Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s sale of Impressionist & Modern Art in London realised £178,590,000 / $282,047,187 / €250,900,411 – the second highest total for any auction ever held in London.

Gustav Klimt’s 1902 “Portrait of Gertrud Loew -Gertha Felsőványi” sold after a ten minute bidding battle for £24.8m / $39.1m / €34.8m – the second highest price for a portrait by the artist at auction (est. £12-18m). “Suprematism, 18th Construction” (1915), an extremely rare work by Kazimir Malevich, made £21.4m / $33.8m / €30.1m – the second highest price for the artist at auction (est. £20-30m)

The first version of Edouard Manet’s famous “Le Bar aux Folies-Bergère” (1881) fetched £16.9 /$26.8m / €23.8m (est. £15-20m). The same work made £4.4m when it last sold at Sotheby’s in London in June 1994. Edgar Degas’ “Petite danseuse de quatorze ans” (1922) – one of only a handful of bronze casts in private hands – made £15.8m / $24.9m / €22.2m (est. £10–15m) – a record for a sculpture by the artist.

Christie’s
Christie’s Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale realised £71,461,000 /$112,908,380 /€100,116,861, with strong sell-through rates of 84% by lot and 92% by value. Bidders from 32 countries across 5 continents competed in the room and on the telephone for works by the trailblazers of the category, including Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso. In total, 24 works of art sold for over £1 million / 29 for over $1 million.

The sale was led by “Iris mauves”, 1914-1917, by Claude Monet which sold, after four minutes of head-to-head bidding, for £10,834,500 /$17,118,510 /€15,179,135 (estimate: £6-9 million). Painted on 14 December 1969, “Tête” by Pablo Picasso sold for £4,450,500 /$7,031,790 /€6,235,151 (estimate: £4.8-6.5 million). “Anita en almée” by Kees van Dongen, 1908, sold for £4,114,500 /$6,500,910 /€5,764,415 (estimate: £4-7 million).

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Klimt, Malevich lead art auctions in London