Miró and Picasso lead auctions in London

Joan Miró
Peinture (Étoile Bleue) (1927).
Sold for £23,561,250 / $36,946,396 / €29,260,764
At Sotheby’s

Miró and Picasso lead auctions in London Joan Miró’s 1927 masterpiece ‘Peinture (Étoile Bleue)’ sold for £23,6 million at Sotheby’s, setting a new auction record for the artist. Renoir’s ‘Baigneuse’ was sold privately at Christie’s, where two portraits by Picasso commanded good prices.]]>

June 20, 2012, source: Christie’s / Sotheby’s

The £23,6 million paid at Sotheby’s for Joan Miró’s 1927 modern masterpiece “Peinture (Étoile Bleue)” is not only a record for the artist, but also the highest price for a work of art sold in London thus far this year. Miró’s painting was the top lot in a sale which realised £75,046,850 / $117,680,965 / € 93,200,835 (est. £73- £102.6m / $114.4 -160.9m / € 90.5-127.3m).

“Peinture (Étoile Bleue)” belongs to the artist’s seminal ‘dream paintings’ cycle. According to Helena Newman, Chairman of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Department, Europe, the work “is one of Miró’s most important paintings, effortlessly bridging the transition between figurative and abstract art“.

Also at Sotheby’s, Pablo Picasso’s monumental late portrait “Homme assis”, executed in 1972, a year before his death, realised £6,201,250/ $9,724,180/ €7,701,345.

The Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale at Christie’s started with the shocking news that Renoir’s “Baigneuse” (which carried a pre-sale estimate of £12 million to £18 million) had been sold privately before the sale. With the Renoir out, Pablo Picasso was the star of the sale. His “Femme assise” (which could be a good companion to the “Homme assis” sold at Sotheby’s) sold for £8,553,250 ($13,402,943), and “Femme au chien” sold for £6,985,250 ($10,945,887)

Paul Signac’s “La Corne d’Or, les minarets” sold for £6,201,250 ($9,717,359), well above its high estimate. “Paysage aux troncs bleus”, a simple but very beautiful Tahitian scene by Paul Gauguin, sold for £4,521,250 ($7,084,799). “Cheval au galop sur le pied droit”, a sculpture by Edgar Degas, sold for £2,617,250 ($4,101,231) against an estimate of just £300,000 – £400,000 ($470,100 – $626,800). £The auction totalled 92,366,300

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