Earlier this week Sotheby’s opened the fall auction season with an impressive record high of $422 million in sales in a single auction for the world’s fourth oldest auction house in continuous operation.
As reported here, of the 73 lots up for auction, 15 lots did not sell, hence the average sell-through rate of 79 percent.
The fall Impressionist and modern auction’s top lot during the evening was Alberto Giacometti’s Chariot (1951-52), which sold after just one $90 million bid (final price with premium was $100.97 million) from a phone bidder who surfaced at the end. Notably, the final price with premium is just under the artist’s $104.3 million record for the work L’homme qui marche I, auctioned by Sotheby’s London in 2010.
The evening’s second highest lot included the record-setting Modigliani sculpture Tête (1911-12) that ultimately sold for $70.73 million surpassing the artist’s previous record set in 2010 at $68.96 million with a painting. A private Chinese collector represented on the phone by Sotheby’s Beijing was the successful bidder in the sale of the evening’s third highest lot, Vincent van Gogh’s Still Life, Vase with Daisies and Poppies (1890), at $61.8 million.
For a thorough recap of Sotheby’s fall Impressionist and modern auction sale earlier this week, click here.