Salerooms
Monet momentum
Susan Moore
Does it make any difference when and with what a work of art is sold? Christie's and Sotheby's think so. Last autumn, Christie's announced that collectors of Impressionist art were more likely to buy other 19th-century paintings than the work of 20th-century masters, and reconfigured their sales accordingly, separating their Picassos from their Pissarros, so to speak. Sotheby's stuck fast to the traditional 'Imp & Mod', and after their spectacular success last week — and Christie's near disastrous results — are delighted their rivals saw fit to change. Vendors, it seems, would prefer to sell their Impressionists alongside a major Modigliani rather than Lord Leighton's 'Kittens'.
According to Sotheby's Philip Hook, the auction-house was able to draw in major business on the back of Monet's Waterlily Pond and Path by the Water', their star lot. The painting is, after all, the quintessential late Monet, a depiction of the celebrated water garden the artist created at his home in Givemy — the most famous garden in the history of art. Its market credentials were impeccable. As an image, it is instant- ly recognisable, obviously valuable and highly decorative, its palette hot reds and purples. Moreover, it had not been seen since it was bought by a discreet British collector at Marlborough in 1954 (for £4,500) — so discreet, in fact, that Christie's apparently did not even know of its whereabouts.
The painting came to the block initially with an estimate of £4-6 million (one of the same series and size had fetched £5.5 mil- lion at Christie's in 1988), although by then Sotheby's knew it would fetch double or even treble. In the event, it went to a still anonymous telephone bidder for a phe- nomenal £19.8 million, a world auction record for the artist and the 11th most expensive painting ever sold at auction. At £10 million, the bidding turned into one of those now almost forgotten high-stake sale- room duels — in this case played out by seconds on the telephone in the saleroom — which resulted in the sort of price no sane dealer would even dream of asking. (The underbidder's second, Sotheby's Progress Michel Strauss — so informed rumour has it — on the phone to a dealer in the room with his mobile, acting for Microsoft's co- founder Paul Allen.) As so often happens, the heat of bidding on the Monet, lot six, aided and abetted by the atmosphere in the crowded rooms and television lights, not only produced a sear- ing price but warmed up the entire sale. One frustrated underbidder (there were six others) went on to pay nearly £4.3 million for Modigliani's sensitive portrait of the potentially alarmingly androgynous Polish émigré Baranowski. Like many another painting in the sale, it only just made its reserve or low estimate. If it had been offered in a calmer climate on another day in a separate 20th-century sale, as it would have been at Christie's, it might well not have sold to this buyer — or sold at all. The University of East Anglia — as well as Sotheby's — must be mightily relieved. The picture was consigned by Sir Robert and Lady Sainsbury to fund a new Unit for Japanese Cultural Studies at UEA. (Sir Robert had bought the portrait in 1937 for £1,000 as a wedding present for his wife.) Although a fine piece of work, it lacked the obvious appeal of Modigliani's nubile nudes.
As it was, the momentum of the Monet carried the day. The sale totalled nearly £37.7 million, with 85 per cent sold by lot, 97 per cent by value; the Part II sale saw 73 per cent sold by lot, 86 per cent by value, adding a further £8 million to the total.
Christie's had fared far less well the pre- vious week. Its Monet landscape and Degas dancers — both less covetable than those on offer up the road — both sold under their lower estimates, although 'La Prome- nade d'Argenteuil' still achieved a higher price than it did when last sold in 1990. Only half the lots in this auction found new homes, 70 per cent by value, realising just under £11.6 million. Part II of the Impres- sionist & 19th Century sale fetched about half that amount, and again only around half of the lots sufficiently tempted buyers. The days of the indiscriminate chase for names in Impressionist sales are long since over. Happily, the firm's 20th Century Art Sale went on to produce strong prices, respectable sale percentages and around £25 million.
As anticipated, Monet's Waterlily Pond' proved the most expensive painting sold in Europe since 1990. Later in the week the same rooms also produced the highest total for any contemporary art sale in Europe since 1990 — just under £10 million. Here a number of high-quality pictures fresh to the market attracted exceptional prices. (Gerhard Richter's large 'Seascape' of 1970 — two skies, in fact, rather than sea and sky separated by a horizon — more than tripled its higher estimate to fetch £1.4 mil- lion.) Results like these remind us all why vendors cannot resist chancing their hand at auction.
Previous page
