Results: Sotheby's NY Impressionist and Modern Art Sale

On Tuesday Sotheby's held its New York City Impressionist and modern Art Evening sale. The pre sale was expectations were to sell between  $162.45 million and $235.1 million.  The actual results totaled a very respectable $230.04 million including buyers premium.  The sale offered 71 lots with 60 selling for a decent 84.5% sell through rate, and it sold a strong 95.2% by value.

All of the top ten sales buyers were listed as anonymous.  Five paintings sold for over $10 million each, with the top selling lot being Les Pommes by Paul Cezanne selling for $41.6 million against an estimate of $25 million to $35 million (see image).  Eight of the top ten lots sold for above the high estimate and the other 2 were within the pre sale estimate range.

The Wall Street Journal reported on the sale

The mood in Sotheby's York Avenue saleroom started off chipper, particularly after collectors noticed rapper LL Cool J watching the bidding from a skybox. The mood fell a little flat after the Lewyt pieces sold, but it didn't matter: Sotheby's $230 million total easily surpassed its $162.5 million low bar and nearly reached its $235.1 million high bar. Five works sold for $10 million or more.

That's mainly because collectors from Latin America, Russia and the U.S. bid steadily for any paintings that popped with color or sculptures that seemed rarer than the rest. Georges Braque's brightly colored Fauve scene from 1907, "Landscape at La Ciotat," sold for $15.8 million, edging over its $15 million high estimate and resetting the artist's record at auction. Claude Monet's 1885 view of a blossoming pear tree, "Pears and Flowers," sold for $8.6 million, over its $7 million high estimate.

Elsewhere in the sale, New York collector Donald Bryant paid $13.6 million for Pablo Picasso's painted metal portrait of a young, pony-tailed woman, "Sylvette." That work was estimated to sell for at least $12 million.

Christie's will counter with its own sale of Impressionist and modern art Wednesday, led by Chaim Soutine's 1927 portrait, "Little Pastry Chef," which it estimates will sell for at least $16 million.

Source: Sotheby's and the Wall Street Journal