Totaling GBP 153 million, Christie’s June 23 sale of Impressionist and Modern Art has broken the record for biggest art auction in London, with Picasso’s Blue Period Portrait d’Angel Fernández de Soto selling for £34.8 million. However, with Monet’s “Water Lily” painting Nymphéas (est. £30-40 million) failing to find a buyer after bidding topped off at £29 million, the evening’s total fell short of the presale estimate of £164-231 million. There were few other surprises, as most of the lots that sold fell squarely within their presale estimates. Exceptions included Rodin’s L’áge d’airain, which doubled its high estimate at £3.4 million, and Henry Moore’s Maquette for King and Queen, which did likewise at £1.7 million – perhaps spurred on by the British sculptor’s highly praised concurrent retrospective at Tate Britain.
Although encouraging, the results of the sale have put a reality check on optimism that the art market has returned to pre-financial crisis levels. Notable works that were passed in include Otto Dix’s Schwangeres Weib (est. £4-6 million), Picasso’s Personnages (est. £3-5 million) and Giacometti’s Diego (tête au cole roulé) (est. £700,000 – £1 million). Set by Sotheby’s in February of this year, the previous London auction record was £147 million, with a substantial portion of that total coming from Giacometti’s £65 million sculpture L’Homme qui marche I.