Monet leads November auctions in New York

Claude Monet: “Meule”, 1891

Edvard Munch
Pikene på broen (Girls on the Bridge)

Monet leads November auctions in New York Claude Monet’s “Meule (Grainstack)” realized $81,4 million at Christie’s New York and achieved a world auction record for the artist. Christie’s also sold a Willem de Kooning for $66,3 million, while Sotheby’s sold Edvard Munch’s “Girls on the Bridge” for $54.5 million]]>

November 17th, 2016. Source: Christie’s / Sotheby’s

On November 16th, Claude Monet’s “Meule (Grainstack)” realized $81,447,500 / £65,210,168 / €75,774,215 at Christie’s New York and achieved a world auction record for the artist. Painted in 1891, this important painting is recognized as one of finest examples of Monet’s Grainstack series. Meule was ultimately sold to an anonymous client on the phone with Margot Rosenberg, Senior Director, Client Advisory, after 14 minutes bidding battle involving 4 different Christie’s specialists and a client in the room. The sale’s auctioneer was Andreas Rumbler, Christie’s Deputy Chairman.

When describing the painting, Brooke Lampley, Christie’s Head of Impressionist and Modern Art, New York, said: “Monet’s Grainstack is the culmination of 25 canvases painted of the same subject in varying light and weather conditions over many months between 1890 and 1891. The precursor to other serial subjects that would come to fruition in the renowned Water Lilies paintings that Monet devoted himself to at the end of his life. It’s these works that elevate Monet beyond consummate Impressionist landscape painter, to radical innovator of the 20th Century abstraction.”

The November 15 evening sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art at Christie’s realized US$276,972,500 / £221,933,093 / €256,776,589 with sell-through rates of 89% by lot and 94% by value. The sale established 4 new world auction records for artists including Willem de Kooning, Jonathan Horowitz, John Currin and Giuseppe Gallo, and one medium record for a work on paper by Christopher Wool. Top lot of the sale was Willem de Kooning’s “Untitled XXV, 1977”, sold for $66,327,500 (£53,147,035 / €61,491,120)

Sotheby’s auctions were led by Edvard Munch’s stunning “Girls on the Bridge” from 1902, which achieved $54.5 million. This work has twice set an auction record for the artist at Sotheby’s – first in 1996, when it sold for $7.7 million, and again in 2008, when it sold for $30.8 million.

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Christie’s to sell Claude Monet’s ‘Meule’ (Grainstack) (news, 2016)