Christies planned art auction is expected to fetch £230 million and confirm that despite the recession the art market has fully recovered. Picasso’s Portrait of Angel Fernández de Soto (The Absinthe Drinker (from his acclaimed Blue Period) and Monet’s Nympheas (above) are estimated to raise between £30m and £40m each. When Leahmans Brothers collapsed in 2008, the bottom fell out of the art market and most observers pictured a long and painful recovery. The proposed art auction has proved them wrong.
Giovanna Bertazzoni, head of Impressionist and Modern art at Christie’s, said: “The strong results at our auctions over the last year, and during the last six months in particular, have further fueled the confidence of vendors; we are witnessing a great willingness from clients to consign works of art of the highest quality.
“There is a fierce international demand in the art market, particularly for the rarest and the best, and the market itself is now truly global as illustrated at our auction in New York in May where we saw bidding from Russia, China and the Middle East, as well as from Europe and the Americas.”
Monet’s Nympheas is inspired by the pond he had built in his new home in Giverney in 1890 at the height of his fame. This pond became a central theme in the inspiration for much of his work afterwords. The work to be offered at Christie’s is the largest of nine Nympheas painted by Monet in 1906.
Vincent van Gogh’s Parc de l’hopital Saint-Paul, painted in 1889 while the artist was convalescing during a voluntary stay at the hospital. The period is considered one of the artists most important periods of work.
Other iconic painters such as Gustav Klimt feature in the auction and if the June 23rd auction raises the projected £230 million it will not only confirm that the art market has bounced back, it will in fact be the most expensive art auction ever.
