Results: Christie's Impressionist and Modern Sale

Christie's held its impressionist and modern evening sale on Tuesday evening.  The sale offered only 40 lots (the smallest Christie's evening sale since 2004) of which 28 sold for a sell through rate of 70%.  The sale totaled $65.67 million including buyers premiums.  The the top lot being an Edgar Degas pastel on paper laid on board, which sold for $10.72 million including buyers premium (see image).

Carol Vogel of the NY Times reports the sale was thin, but mentions there were some clear winners, but also a fair number of failures as well.  The 28 of 40 lots sold fell just below the total low estimate for the sale $68.6 million.  Given only 28 lots sold, the dollar amount for those sold does not appear overly negative, yet the 12 of 40 that did not sell is a statement that all is still not well with the market. Vogel also mentions a large contingent of overseas bidders due to the weak US dollar, with only 29% of the buyers from the US. She also mentions mediocre work failed to attract much interest or bids. One item of note, the top lot of the Christie's evening sale, a Picasso, estimated to sell between $7 - $10 million failed to sell.

Vogel states

But not all such appealing images sold. One surprising failure was Pissarro’s “Pont du chemin de fer, Pontoise,” an 1873 landscape. Christie’s had estimated that it would bring at least $3.5 million. But there was only one bidder, who was not prepared to spend more than $3.2 million, so the painting went unsold. “I was surprised,” said Lionel Pissarro, a Paris dealer who is a great-grandson of the artist. “It is a beautiful painting and it wasn’t overpriced.”

Mediocre examples of work by artists like Matisse and Sisley, Mondrian and Modigliani failed to elicit so much as a bid. But no one seemed surprised because buyers in this economy are being careful and are only willing to write big checks when something is considered rare or an especially prime example.

Such was the case with one of Rodin’s bronze kisses, conceived in 1880-81 and cast between 1887 and 1901. It was an early cast, so the details were particularly fresh. Six bidders instantly went for the sculpture, which was sold to Christopher Eykyn, a Manhattan dealer, for $5.6 million ($6.3 million with Christie’s fees) nearly three times its high $2 million estimate. Mr. Eykyn was bidding for a client but he would not identify him.

Provenance mattered too. A sun-dappled Monet landscape depicting a village on the Seine was being sold by an heir of Paul Durand-Ruel, the Paris dealer who championed Impressionist painters long before they were fashionable. Two telephone bidders vied for the painting, which was estimated at $5 million and brought $4.8 million ($5.4 million with fees).

The spin Christie's placed on the sale by Marc Potter, President of Christies America was

This evening’s results demonstrated that classic Impressionist paintings and sculptures across a range of prices continue to achieve strong results, including Degas’s glorious pastel that enjoyed active bidding from around the world. There was also vigorous bidding in the saleroom for some of the finest and freshest works to come to market this season, including Rodin’s The Kiss, Monet’s Vétheuil, effet de soleil, and Lempicka’s Portrait du Marquis Sommi.

Very different from the review in the NY Times by Carol Vogel.  Christie's of course is probably half correct, and mentions the success, with no word of the failures.

To read the NY Times article, click HERE.