Claude Monet: “Meules” (1890). Estimated in excess of $55 million – Sold for $110.7 million
Monet leads New York art auctions, spring 2019 A $110 million ‘Haystacks’ painting by Claude Monet leads Sotheby’s art auctions in New York, spring 2019. Jeff Koons’s ‘Rabbit’ and Robert Rauschenberg’s ‘Buffalo II’ were the top lots at Christie’s.]]>
May 17th, 2019, source: Sotheby’s / Christie’s
Sotheby’s sale was led by Claude Monet’s Meules from 1890 – an icon of Impressionism from the artist’s acclaimed Haystacks series, which sold for an astounding $110.7 million: a new world auction record for any work by Monet, and the first Impressionist work to cross the $100 million threshold at auction. Underscoring the importance of this masterpiece, “Meules” also became the 9th most expensive work ever sold at auction.
The seven works by Pablo Picasso on offer at the sale totaled an impressive $93.5 million, led by “Femme au chien”, which sold for $54.9 million in its auction debut – a new world auction record for any 1960s work by Picasso. Completed over the course of nearly a month at the end of 1962, the magnificent large-scale canvas depicts Jacqueline Roque enthroned in an armchair and petting Picasso’s Afghan hound, Kaboul.
At Christie’s, the top lots of the sale were Jeff Koon’s, “Rabbit” ($91,075,000) – a world auction record for living artist- and Robert Rauschenberg’s “Buffalo II”, which sold for $88,805,000, after a bidding war on the phones which lasted over 10 minutes. Two days before, the top lots of the Impressionist & Modern sale were Cézanne’s “Bouilloire et fruits”, which sold for $59,295,000 to client on the phone and Van Gogh’s “Arbres dans le jardin de l’asile”, which realized $40,000,000.
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