Modigliani sells for £113m in New York

modiglianiAn oil painting by Amedeo Modigliani, Nu couché (1917-18) has become the second most expensive painting ever when it sold at auction at Christie’s New York last night for $170.4m (£113m).

The buyer is a private Chinese collector, identified as Chinese billionaire Liu Yiqian and his wife, Wang Wei by The Wall Street Journal.

Paul Gauguin, Thérèse (1902-03) About half a dozen bidders competed for the Modigliani at the sale, which also included 33 other works, such as Paul Gauguin’s sculpture Therese, which sold for $30,965,000 (£20,502,440).

Painted during 1917 and 1918, Nu Couche had a pre-sale estimate of $100m, with the final price achieved a record for the artist.

 

_86603143_nurseA new world record was also set for another artist, Roy Lichtenstein, whose Nurse fetched $95,365,000 (£63,123,067). The painting was the second-biggest seller of the night.

The Christie’s sale took a total of $494.4m (£327.3m), although nearly 30% of the art works for sale failed to sell, such as Lucian Freud’s Naked Portrait on a Red Sofa, which was estimated at $30m (£19.85m).

Christie’s global president Jussi Pylkkanen said the sale of Nu couche was, “well-deserved recognition for the artist to have realised a price $100m higher than any other (Modigliani) work previously offered at auction.”

Top Ten Most Expensive works of Art sold at Auction

Pablo Picasso’s Les femmes d’Alger (1955) – $179,364,992

Amedeo Modigliani’s Nu couche (1917 – 1918) – $170,405,000

Francis Bacon’s Three Studies of Lucien Freud (1969) – $142,404,992

Alberto Giacometti’s L’homme au doigt (1947) – $141,284,992

Edvard Munch’s The Scream (1895) – $119,922,496

Pablo Picasso’s Nude, Green Leaves and Bust (1932) – $106,482,496

Andy Warhol, Silver Car Crash (1963) – $105,445,000

Pablo Picasso’s Garcon a la pipe (1905) – $104,168,000

Alberto Giacometti’s L’homme qui marche (1960) – $103,935,480

Alberto Giacometti’s Chariot (1950) – $100,965,000

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