Simon Hantai’s market has been making steady progress towards prices that put him in the first rank of global artists. In December of last year, Sotheby’s sale rooms in Paris achieved a €4.4m record for the artist for one of his fold paintings.

Sotheby’s is now shaking up the dynamic in Hantai’s market by announcing the last work from the series of 27 works created between 1960 and 1962 as a lot in the New York Contemporary art Evening sale.

For many, this work, one of only 18 or so works not in held by a museum, is considered the most realized version of the technique Hantai played with during this period. The work was included in the 1999 retrospective of his work held in Munster and the recent Centres Pompidou retrospective in 2013 that has had such a strong effect on Hantai’s market.

Since 2013, Sotheby’s has sold these works annually in their December sale in Paris for €2.5m, €2m, €2.5m and €4.4m.