Manet masterpiece sells for US$65m
Print Edition
A CELEBRATED 1881 portrait by French Impressionist Edouard Manet on Wednesday smashed the record for the artist when it sold for US$65.1 million at Christie’s, going far toward the auction house’s solid total takings of US$165.6 million.
“Le Printemps,” an oil painting owned by the same family for a century, had been estimated to sell for about US$35 million, but half a dozen bidders competing for the work, most of them via telephone, helped drive up the price.
The sale, including Christie’s commission of just over 12 percent, nearly doubled the previous record of US$33.2 million for a Manet, set in 2010 by “Self Portrait with a Palette.”
The strong results were a testament to “the widespread interest in Impressionist and modern art,” said Doug Woodham, president of Christie’s Americas.
For a second straight night, collectors of increasingly rare Impressionist and modern trophy works spent heavily.
But the auction was a far more modest affair than Tuesday’s record sale at rival Sotheby’s, which saw the highest auction total in its 270-year history, but managed to beat even the high pre-sale estimate of US$157 million.
Christie’s officials worked to keep estimates conservative, and the strategy paid off as more than half the offerings exceeded the high estimate.
“The sale was overwhelmingly well-priced and tailored to today’s tastes,” said Brooke Lampley, head of Impressionist and modern art.
“We had participation from every part of the world,” she said, adding that four of the evening’s 10 highest-priced works were bought by clients from Britain.
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