The New York Times announces that Christie’s will repeat its new formula of holding Giga-week sales with another series commencing November 9th and opening with a 25-30 lot sale around the theme of the Artist’s Muse with a Modigliani nude as the anchor work.

The week is modeled on May’s successful sale including the “Looking Forward to the Past” sale of Modern and Contemporary works. As the Times points out, these sales over further evidence that the top end of the art market is merging into one category packed into a frenzied week.

The success of that opening auction had persuaded the owner of the Modigliani, a private Swiss collector, to consign this fall, and the opening auction on Nov. 9 will be constructed around it, said Jussi Pylkkanen, Christie’s global president and chief auctioneer. That evening’s sale will include about 25 to 30 works, including works by artists such as Giacometti, Picasso and Warhol — “artists for whom,” Mr. Pylkkanen said, “the muse was so important.”

The move—which should have been anticipated by the competition—will immediately raise the question of how and when Sotheby’s and Phillips will schedule their own sales.

Another Single Week of Sales for Christie’s This Fall, With Modigliani as Its Star  (The New York Times)