Shanghai art collector snaps up Modigliani’s nude for US$170.4m
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SHANGHAI collector Liu Yiqian snapped up a sensuous Modigliani nude for US$170.4 million in New York, setting a world record price at auction for the Italian artist in a bumper Christie’s sale.
The auction also set world auction records for US pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, whose “Nurse” fetched US$95.4 million, as well as for 19th century French painter Gustave Courbet.
It raked in a total of US$491.35 million, busting presale estimates of US$443 million marking a return to form after a sluggish opening auction at Sotheby’s suggested that bumper profits might be leveling off.
Modigliani’s “Nu Couche” or “Reclining Nude,” painted in 1917-18, sold after a frantic nine-minute bidding war between seven would-be buyers on the first time the painting has ever come to auction.
It was the second-highest price ever achieved at auction for a work or art and applause erupted in the packed room when the sale concluded — clinched by a Chinese buyer on the telephone, Christie’s said.The Beijing Times later said the buyer was Liu, from Shanghai.
It was just US$9 million shy of the world record of US$179.4 million for Picasso’s “The Women of Algiers (Version 0)” — which the auction house sold in New York last May in a record-breaking spring season.
The Modigliani oil on canvas depicts a naked woman reclining on a red couch and blue cushion, and provoked a scandal when it was first exhibited by the Italian artist in Paris. A crowd gathered outside the window and outraged police ordered the exhibition to shut down immediately.
“We are in a masterpiece market,” said Jussi Pylkkanen, who led the auction, adding that the rare and important works on offer “created a huge amount of energy and biding.”
The painting has been exhibited in some of the finest art galleries all over the world including at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. The previous record for a Modigliani was US$70.7 million set in November last year for a sculpture.
The sale titled “The Artist’s Muse” also set a record at auction for Lichtenstein, with his “Nurse” selling for US$95.4 million.
That made it a shrewd investment for the seller, who acquired the iconic piece of American pop art and comic book-inspired portrait for US$1.65 million in 1995.
The price reached for the shocked-looking blonde with sexy red lips smashed the previous record for a Lichtenstein — US$56 million paid for “Women with Flowered Hat.”
The 1964 painting dates from the height of the US pop art movement and is a regular in retrospectives on Lichtenstein, who died in 1997.
Monday’s sale followed record-breaking sales in New York in May, when more than US$2.6 billion of art was sold in 10 days. A Courbet “Femme Nue Couchee” sold for US$15.3 million.
Another highlight was Gauguin’s “Therese,” which fetched almost US$31 million, setting a world auction record for a sculpture by the artist.
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