5 Lots Sold over £7 Million / $10 Million
Average Sold Lot Value £2.5 Million / $3.6 Million
The night was led by Pablo Picasso’s Tête de femme, a 1935 portrait of his muse Marie-Thérèse Walter that sold for £18.9 million
A lifetime cast of Auguste Rodin’s Iris led the selection of sculpture on offer, achieving £11.6 million – well in excess of its £8 million high estimate, and marking a new auction record for the artist in GBP
- The present cast last appeared at auction in 2007 at Sotheby’s London, when it sold for £4.6 million
- Sculpture performed well throughout the evening, with 9 of 10 pieces on offer sold, for a combined total of £17.1 million
The Surrealist portion of tonight’s sales was led by Paul Delvaux’s Le Miroir, which achieved a new auction record for the artist in selling for £7.3 million
- The same painting set an auction record for the artist when it was last sold in 1999
- Surrealist material totaled £14.9 million, including a new auction record for a sculpture by Man Ray
Claude Monet’s Le Palais Ducal vu de Saint-Georges Majeur from 1908 sold for £11.6 million
- Of Monet’s 36 Venice pictures, half now reside in museum collections
Henri Matisse’s La Leçon de piano from 1923 sold for £10.8 million
- The painting was acquired by Royan Middleton, an Aberdonian printer and publisher, in 1927 and has remained with his family since
- The work is closely related to a number of paintings in major museums including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and the Kunstmuseum in Berlin
