Matisse sells for record 32m euros at Yves Saint Laurent 'sale of the century' at Christie's
Bids for Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose (Cuckoos on a blue and pink carpet) smashed the pre-sale estimate by Christie's of 18 million euros.
The price was slightly larger than the $33 million paid for Matisse's L'Odalisque, harmonie bleue, in 2007.
Bids for the collection hit 206 million euros (£180 million) on Monday, making it the most expensive private art collection ever auctioned, with two days still left to run.
Six world record bids for works by major modern artists, and dozens of lesser sales, confirmed the global reputation of the collection amassed over half a century by Saint Laurent and his lifelong companion, Pierre Bergé.
Works by artists including Piet Mondrian, the Dutch abstract painter, Constantin Brancusi, the Romanian sculptor, and Marcel Duchamp, the French innovator, earned record sums, well above earlier estimates.
By contrast, the much-anticipated Pablo Picasso work "Musical Instruments on a Table" flopped. Bidding fell short of the 25 million euro guide price, the biggest in the collection, and the piece was withdrawn unsold...
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
The price was slightly larger than the $33 million paid for Matisse's L'Odalisque, harmonie bleue, in 2007.
Bids for the collection hit 206 million euros (£180 million) on Monday, making it the most expensive private art collection ever auctioned, with two days still left to run.
Six world record bids for works by major modern artists, and dozens of lesser sales, confirmed the global reputation of the collection amassed over half a century by Saint Laurent and his lifelong companion, Pierre Bergé.
Works by artists including Piet Mondrian, the Dutch abstract painter, Constantin Brancusi, the Romanian sculptor, and Marcel Duchamp, the French innovator, earned record sums, well above earlier estimates.
By contrast, the much-anticipated Pablo Picasso work "Musical Instruments on a Table" flopped. Bidding fell short of the 25 million euro guide price, the biggest in the collection, and the piece was withdrawn unsold...