Modigliani’s ‘Reclining Nude’ sells for $170 million at Christie’s
“Reclining Nude,” the century-old painting by Amedeo Modigliani, sold for $170,405,000 at a Christie’s auction on Monday.
There were five bidders for the work and the auction lasted nine minutes.
This is the second-highest price for a painting sold at auction. Christie’s had hoped the painting, made in 1917 and 1918, would fetch $100 million. Christie’s said the painting “caused a scandal” when Modigliani exhibited it nearly 100 years ago in Paris. Police were “outraged by the content of the show” and ordered it closed.
Modigliani’s ‘Reclining Nude’
STC’s take:
Why care? We are photographers and not painters, right? But, the same market that sells paintings also sells photographs for a whopping amount of money. And, trust me, taking a photograph is much easier than painting a masterpiece. 2015 is quickly nearing its end and it has been a wonderful year, but it’s hardly over! The real fun is just about to begin.
Miami’s famous Art Basel art exhibit starts on December 3 – 6, 2015. There will be the most famous and newcomers of photography exhibited by some of the best known galleries in the industry. Meet and greet the big name artists who will be strolling the exhibit and cashing in their fame and looking for new leads.
This is the highlight of the photography world. Shoot The Centerfold photographers and their fine art images will also be displayed by famous gallery/dealer Richard Coplan, who you had a pleasure to meet earlier this year at our March seminar where he gave a speech and reviewed attendee portfolios. “The fine art industry is a hungry place,” says Richard Coplan. There is room for new artists and he is looking for the next big star.
Now art is a hot commodity
Roy Lichtenstein’s 1964 pop art “Nurse,” one of his signature comic book style paintings made with colored dots, sold Monday for $95,365,000. That’s an auction record for Lichtenstein.
Last week, rival auction house Sotheby’s sold $750 million worth of art, much of it owned by the late shopping mall magnate A. Alfred Taubman.
The top-selling painting from the Sotheby’s auction was “La Gommeuse,” a 1901 nude by Picasso that sold for $67.5 million. The sale also included a Modigliani portrait, “Paulette Jordan” ($42.8 million).
The winning bidder of all the most expensive works were listed as anonymous.
Picasso still holds the record price for paintings at auction. His 1955 painting “Les femmes d’Alger” fetched $179 million at a Christie’s auction earlier this year.
Other paintings to go for nine figures at auction include:
- “Three Studies of Lucian Freud,” $142.4 million (2013, Christie’s)
- “The Scream” by Edvard Munch, $119.9 million (2012, Sotheby’s)
- “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” by Picasso, $106.5 million (2010, Christie’s)
- “Garcon a la Pipe” by Picasso, $104.2 million (2004, Sotheby’s)
Private sales have reportedly brought in even higher prices, though they can be difficult to confirm since sellers don’t typically release that information.
The most expensive painting in the world is reportedly an 1892 portrait of two Tahitian girls by Paul Gauguin called “Nafea faa ipoipo,” or “When will you marry?” The painting went for $300 million in a private sale earlier this year, according to The New York Times.
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