Running total for 20th Century Week at Christie’s New York: $584,483,750
Sale total: US$246,344,500/ £197,233,387/ €229,185,195
Top lot of the sale: Claude Monet’s Meule sold for $81,447,500 (£65,210,168 / €75,774,215) | A WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR THE ARTIST
Sell-through rates: 81% by lot and 88% by value
2 new world auction records for Claude Monet and Wassily Kandinsky
The sale attracted registered bidders from 33 countries, with strong bidding from US, Europe, and Asia
Brooke Lampley, Head of Impressionist & Modern Art at Christie’s New York, remarked: “There was tremendous excitement for great pictures of every variety tonight, and we proved definitively that the market for Impressionism is as strong as ever. Monet’s masterpiece Meule, the culminating work in a series of 25 from 1890-1891 and a direct precursor to the famed Water Liliescycle, attracted highly competitive bidding from 5 clients. After 14 minutes of volleyed bids, it sold for $81.5 million and broke the record for the artist established by Christie’s in 2008. Kandinsky’s magnificent 1935 Rigid et courbé also set a new world auction record for the artist. Our curated selection of Picassos were highly sought after, the top lot of which was the Buste de femme (Dora Maar). We are pleased to share the buyer was the esteemed Japanese collector Yusaku Maezawa, who offered the following comment, ‘I am honored to be able to live with and enjoy this work by Pablo Picasso the most beloved artist of all artists.’”
Claude Monet (1840-1926) – Meule – Price Realised USD 81,447,500,
signed and dated ‘Claude Monet 91’ (lower left)
oil on canvas
28 5/8 x 36 ¼ in. (72.7 x 92.1 cm.)
Painted in 1891
