The Van Gogh led Christie’s $479.3 million sale that surpassed the auction house’s high presale target and posted a 95 percent increase from a similar event a year ago. Asian collectors were active.

Fernand Leger previous record of $39.2 million smashed with the sale of "Contraste de formes" for $70.1 million. 

 

Additional artist records set for René Magritte, Jean Crotti, Suzanne Duchamp, Emil Nolde, Man Ray and Edouard Vuillard evince both a broader offering and deeper bidding compared with last year’s equivalent auction. That the sale’s top ten lots were all over $10m “really underscores the strength of the market”, said Jessie Fertig, head of sale. Pablo Picasso’s portrait of his second wife Jacqueline Roque also inspired a bidding war from collectors based in Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia and Dubai, Christie’s said.  

 

 

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