NEW YORK, (AFP) - A large bronze sculpture of a woman's back by Henri Matisse sold Wednesday for nearly 49 million dollars in New York, setting a new record for the French impressionist.
Measuring 74.5 inches (189.2 cm), "Nu de dos" was the star of the auction at Christie's. It went under the hammer just a day after rival Sotheby's auctioned an Amedeo Modigliani painting for a record 69 million dollars.
"Nu de dos, 4 etat (Back IV)," had been estimated to sell for between 25 and 35 million dollars, before a bidding war sent the price spiraling to 48,802,500 dollars. Christie's called the sale "extraordinary."A record was also set at Christie's for Juan Gris, whose cubist oil on canvas painting, "Violon et guitare," sold for 28.6 million dollars. The painting had been estimated to sell for between 18 and 25 million dollars.
The stunning Matisse sale injected high energy into an often muted auction, where the 231 million dollars total haul came in at the lower end of the pre-auction estimate of 198.3 to 286.6 million dollars. |
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