Christie’s at Rockefeller Center held the Impressionist and modern sale setting new records for two cornerstones of modern art—Claude Monet and Wassily Kandinsky, whose high marks now stand at $81.4 million and $23.3 million. The record-shattering Monet, Meule (1891), 28-by-36-inch painting of a blazing horizon , was the top lot of the evening and sold after more than 10 minutes of bidding.
Claude Monet, Meule, 1891, oil on canvas. Estimate: available upon request, around $45 million; realized: $81.4 million.
CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD., 2016
Wassily Kandinsky, Rigide et courbé, 1935, oil and sand on canvas. Estimate: $18 million-$25 million; realized: $23.3 million.
CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD., 2016
Kandinsky was less of a surprise. Painted late in the artist’s career, in 1935, the piece, titled Rigide et courbé, had been estimated to make between $18 million and $25 million. The work had not been included in a museum exhibition since 1949, and had been held by the same family since acquiring it at Sotheby’s in London in 1964, back when Lyndon B. Johnson was president.
Nature and Individual