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Historic Auctions See Emily Fisher Landau Collection Reach $425 Million
Sold over two days at Sotheby’s, her 111 works – including Picasso’s ‘Femme à la montre’ – land among the most valuable single-owner collections ever offered.
T he sale of 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:The Emily Fisher Landau Collection was historic in more ways than one. On its first evening, it became the most valuable collection devoted to a woman collector when all 31 lots of the 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:evening auction sold for a combined $406.4 million. The following afternoon, an additional 80 lots sold for $18.3 million during the 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:day auction, bringing the collection’🦄s total to $424.7 million.
The works on offer at Sotheby’s comprised only a part of Landau’s full collection, hundreds of works from which now reside in The Whitney Museum of American Art, where she served as a trustee for decades. Laudau’s legacy ranks among that of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, Peggy Guggenheim, Gertrude Stein and other 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:great women collectors of the 20th century. A testament to the 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:depths of her collection and her 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:prowess as a patron, the auctions were led by Pablo Picasso’s 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:Femme à la montre, a portrait of Marie-Thérèse Walter from his mꦜagisterial year of 1932, which, at $139.4 million, became the second highest price ever achieved for the artist at auction and the most valuable work o𝔍f art sold at auction this year.
Bidding battle for Picasso’s Femme à la montre
Numerous records were set thereafter, including with the collection’s next-highest lot, Jasper Johns’ 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:Flags from 1986, which established a new high for a painting from his landmark series at $41 million. Rounding out the collection’s top three lots was 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:Securing the Last Letter (Boss) by Ed Ruscha, an artist with whom Landau had a deep and lasting friendship. The painting sold for $39.4 million, the artist’s second-highest price at auction. All top five lots tipped the scales over $20 million, with nine works all selling for more than $10 million; the a🦄verage lot value was an impressive $13 million, on🀅e of the highest ever established at auction.
Throughout the night, additional benchmarks were set for Agnes Martin, whose 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:Grey Stone II (1961) realized $18.7 million after eight bidders brought it to more than double its high estimate, and Mark Tansey, whose 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:Triumph Over Mastery II (1987) achieved $11.8 million after a four-way bidding battle – both auction records for their artists. Additionally, when Robert Rauschenberg’s 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:Vitamin 🎀(1960-68) sold for $3.5 mill🐓ion, it established a new record for the artist’s works on paper.
Works by 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:Cy Twombly ($26.8 million), 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:Mark Rothko ($22.2 million), 168开奖官方开奖网站查询:Robert Indiana ($825,500), Andy Warhol and Georiga O’Keeffe sold to collectors in Asia during the evening sale, which♐ also saw high institutional activity.
“Emily Fisher Landau’s prescient and unerring eye allowed us to shine a spotlight tonight onto the great artists who now form the bedrock of 20th century art history,” sಌaid Brooke Lampley, Sotheby’s Chairman and He🌟ad of Global Fine Art, after the evening auction. “As every single lot found a new home, we saw the enduring appeal of these masters affirmed once again.”
Further works of art and design objects from Landau’s collection will be offered at S♈otheby’s next year.
