Sotheby's London achieved a solid £118m Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale with a record-breaking portrait of Picasso's golden muse. Picasso's Femme au béret et à la robe quadrillée (Marie-Thérèse Walter), created in 1937, fetched £49.8m, the highest price for any painting ever sold at auction in Europe. Most other lots also were sold for prices above estimate.
Femme au béret et à la robe quadrillée (Marie-Thérèse Walter), painted just months after his famous anti-war work Guernica, appeared at auction for the first time since the current owner acquired it from the artist's estate.
Started at £32m, the bidding of this estimate-upon-request painting went steadily up to £39m. The bidding atmosphere then cooled down but the auctioneer — knowing that the painting could fetch higher price — decided to wait for another minute. The bids for the painting were further pushed up before topping out at the final bid at £44m, reaching £49.8m with buyer's premium and setting the record for the most expensive painting ever sold at auction in Europe (record in GBP).
Picasso's 1970 Le Matador, another example demonstrating the artist's diverse styles, shows his life-long obsession with the theme bullfighting. Estimated at £14m - 18m, the painting was offered an opening bid of £11m and was hammered down at £14.5m, sold for £16.5m with buyer's premium.
Following the Impressionist and Modern Art Sale was Surrealist Art Evening sale, in which the top two lots were dominated by Salvador Dalí.
Rediscovered works by Dalí were undoubtedly highlights of the sales. The leading lot was Maison pour érotomane, a painting that metamorphosing in front of the view’s eyes into a fantastical, dream-like image. Estimated at £1.2m - 1.8m., it was hammered down for £3m and sold for £3.53m with buyer's premium. Also carrying an estimate of £1.2m - 1.8m, Dalí's Gradiva, also the name the artist gave to his wife, portrays the ultimate muse for all surrealists. The painting was hammered down for £2.25m and sold for £2.69m with buyer's premium. Both paintings fetched prices doubling low estimates.
René Magritte's riveting gouache Le Jockey Perdu, estimated at £1m - 1.5m, was hammered down for £1.6m and sold for £1.92m with buyer's premium. This exceptional work by Magritte has got incredible scale, great freshness, the colour and the brightness.
Top three lots at Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). Femme au béret et à la robe quadrillée (Marie-Thérèse Walter)
Lot no.: 7
Size: 55 x 46cm
Created in: 4 December 1937
Provenance:
- Estate of the artist
- Private Collection, from the above
Estimate Upon Request
Hammer price: £44,000,000
Price realized: £49,827,000
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). Le Matador.
Lot no.: 16
Size: 146 x 114.3cm
Created in: 23 October 1970
Provenance:
Estate of the artist
- Galerie Claude Bernard, Paris (acquired by 1980)
- Corporate Collection, U.S.A.
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: £14,000,000 - 18,000,000
Hammer price: £14,500,000
Price realized: £16,521,500
André Derain (1880-1954). Bateaux à Collioure.
Lot no.: 11
Size: 38.4 x 46cm
Created in: 1905
Provenance:
- Ambroise Vollard, Paris
- Sale: Galerie Charpentier, Paris, 17th June 1960, lot 75
- Pierre Lévy, Troyes
- Roger Gros, Paris (acquired by 1965)
- Sale: Drouot Montaigne, Paris, 3rd April 1995, lot 85
- Private Collection, Switzerland (sold: Christie’s, London, 9th February 2011, lot 16)
- Purchased at the above sale by the present owner
Estimate: £7,500,000 - 10,000,000
Hammer price: £9,500,000
Price realized: £10,876,500
Top three lots at Surrealist Art Evening Sale
Salvador Dalí (1904-1989). Maison pour érotomane.
Lot no.: 35
Created in: 1932
Size: 14 x 18 cm
Provenance:
- Maria Adela 'Tota' Atucha, Condesa de Cuevas de Vera, Buenos Aires (acquired from the artist)
- Thence by descent to the present owners
Estimate: £1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Hammer price: £3,000,000
Price realized: £3,538,000
Salvador Dalí (1904-1989). Gradiva.
Lot no.: 33
Created in: 1931
Signed: Salvador Dalí (upper right)
Size: 20.6 x 15.5 cm
Provenance:
- Maria Adela 'Tota' Atucha, Condesa de Cuevas de Vera, Buenos Aires (acquired from the artist)
- Thence by descent to the present owners
Estimate: £1,200,000 - 1,800,000
Hammer price: £2,250,000
Price realized: £2,691,250
René Magritte (1898-1967). Le jockey perdu.
Lot no.: 41
Created in: 1947-1948
Size: 37 x 46 cm
Provenance:
- Alexander Iolas, Paris
- William N. Copley, Beverly Hills (acquired from the above in April 1948)
- Stanley N. Barbee, Beverly Hills (acquired from the above. Sold: Sotheby's, New York, 11th November 1959, lot 51)
- William N. Copley, Beverly Hills
- Thence by descent to the present owner
Estimate: £1,000,000 - 1,500,000
Hammer price: £1,600,000
Price realized: £1,929,000
Auction result
Auction house: Sotheby's London
Sale: Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale
Date: 2018/2/28
Lots offered: 47
Sold: 36
Unsold: 11
Sold by lot: 76.5%
Sale total: £136,001,500