$50 million Mondrian expected to break records at Sotheby’s

In November 2022, Sotheby’s will auction Piet Mondrian’s “Composition No. III”, expected to break the artist’s auction record.

By G. Fernández · theartwolf · Image: Piet Mondrian, “Composition No. III” (1930)

Described by Sotheby’s as “the pinnacle of Mondrian’s mature style, which the artist refined during his time in Paris and immersion in the artistic firmament that took hold there during the 1920s and early 1930s“, “Composition No. III” belongs to a series of three paintings of practically identical composition, the other two belonging to public collections (Kunsthaus Zürich and Narodni muzej in Belgrade). Sotheby’s also points out that the version to be auctioned in November is the largest of the three, although the difference is very small (51 x 51 cm compared to approximately 45 x 45 cm for the other two).

Sotheby’s has announced that the painting is expected to achieve “in excess of $50 million“, which could set a new auction record for the artist. Interestingly, the current record is held by a painting of the same title -although painted a year before- sold for $50.6 million at Christie’s in May 2015. In terms of date, scale and composition, comparison between the two paintings is inevitable, and it is impossible to establish an objective verdict as to which is more valuable or important. More recently, last year Christie’s auctioned another “Composition No. II” (1927) for just over $26 million, although in this case it was a painting somewhat smaller in scale and less complex in composition.

Despite the importance of these “Parisian” compositions in Mondrian’s career, there are several paintings in private collections that could easily exceed this price. Among them are the diamond-shaped paintings (known as “lozenge“) painted by the artist in Paris in the mid-1920s. It is worth recalling that less than a year ago, Piet Mondrian’s heirs claimed “Composition with Blue” (1925) from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. At that time, several sources suggested that the work could be worth up to $100 million, a price which, although it seems somewhat exaggerated, points to the extraordinary value of this series, and raises the question of how much works such as “Lozenge composition with red, black, blue, and yellow“, also painted in 1925, could fetch on the market. On the other hand, the “Boogie-Woogies” painted by Mondrian in New York in the last stage of his career are also of great importance, although the last time one of them came up for auction (“New York 1941 / Boogie-Woogie. 1941-42” at Sotheby’s, November 2004) the result was somewhat disappointing.