Bloomberg made a lot out of the supposed fact that a billionaire had put a reserve on a$30-$40m Mondrian at FIAC’s The Modern Project last month. The news gave confidence in both the high end of the art market and that the momentum in the Mondrian market created in the Yves Saint Laurent sale would carry through to New York. Last night, however, Christie’s Mondrian was said to have many interested lookers. In the end, it had no bidders.

Now Lindsay Pollock follows up on FIAC to discover the big-ticket Mondrian may not have sold either:

“No sales are confirmed,” Leonore Malingue, director of the Paris-based gallery Malingue, which originally proposed the show, said in an e-mail yesterday. […]

Seven of the works will be shown in a section called “Special Exhibition” at the Abu Dhabi Art fair, opening on Nov. 19, said Malingue. “Some pieces of art are the same as in FIAC,” she said. “Some are new.”

Picasso Flops as Impressionist Auction Misses Target (Bloomberg)