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From Monet to Ruscha: highlights of November 2019 art auctions

Claude Monet - Charing Cross Bridge

Claude Monet: “Charing Cross Bridge” (1903)

Monet to Ruscha: highlights of November 2019 auctions A $52 million painting by Ed Ruscha was the star of the November 2019 art auctions at Christie’s and Sotheby’s]]>

November 15, 2019, source: Christie’s and Sotheby’s

Impressionist and Modern art

At Sotheby’s, Claude Monet’s “Charing Cross Bridge” (1903) sold for $27.6 million, a respectable price, although logically far from the recent results of his most luminous “Haystacks” series. A very pleasant work by Gustave Caillebotte, “Richard Gallo et son chien au Petit Gennevilliers” fetched almost $20 million. Paul Signac’s “La Corne D’or, Constantinople” was sold for $16.2 million.

Christie’s sold “Le seize septembre”, a large and quite poetical work by Surrealist René Magritte, for $19,5 million, almost doubling its high estimate. Similarly successful was “Jardin et poulailler chez Octave Mirbeau, Les Damps”, a colorful and attractive painting by Camille Pissarro, sold for over $10 million against an estimate of $4-6 million. However, the biggest surprise of the auction was “Forme uniche della continuità nello spazio (Unique Forms of Continuity in Space)”, an important sculpture by Umberto Boccioni, sold for over $16 million against an estimate of $3.8-4.5 million.

Post-War and contemporary art

“Hurting the Word Radio #2” by Ed Ruscha was the star of the auction at Christie’s -and the blockbuster of the season, making $52 million. Painted in 1964, it is now the most expensive work by Ruscha. David Hockney’s “Sur la Terrasse” was sold for $29.5 million, a strong price albeit arguably somewhat disappointing after the $90.3 million made by “Portrait of an Artist (Pool With Two Figures)” one year ago.

At Sotheby’s, “Untitled XXII”, a 1977 abstraction by Willem De Kooning sold for $30.1 million, while “PH-399” (1946) by Clyfford Still fetched $24.3 million.

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From Monet to Ruscha: highlights of November 2019 art auctions