Sotheby’s Paris has achieved a combined total of €38.4M / $42M / £27.5M for its December sales of Impressionist & Modern and Contemporary art. The December 10 sale of Impressionist & Modern Art brought a total of €12.9m / $14.1m / £9.3m, the US-based auction house said, led by “strong prices for works by modern masters of the 20th century, and paintings and sculptures from prestigious private collections.” The December 9 and 10 Contemporary Art evening and day sales achieved a total of €25.5 million / $27.9 million / £18.5 million, one of the company’s highest totals for a Contemporary Art sales series in France.The December 10 sale of Impressionist & Modern Art was led by Marc Chagall’s “Paysage à l’Isba,” a late work by the artist, which fetched €1.65m / $1.82m / £1.2m with fees against an estimate of €1.4-1.8 million at hammer prices.Other highlights included a group of 11 bronze statuettes by Aristide Maillol from the collection of Pierre Jourdan-Barry, which sold for a combined total of €1.38m / $1.52m / £1m against an estimate of €670,000 - 950,000, and a major work on paper by Joan Miro titled “Femme” 1870 which made €1.26m / $1.38m / £913,760 against an estimate of €800,000- 1.2m.Jean Dubuffet’s “Midi Sonne Grelot” 1961 achieved the highest price of the Contemporary Art evening and day sales, selling for €2.95m / $3.2m / £2.1mm against an estimate of €2.5-3.5m. Other highlights included Jean-Paul Riopelle’s “La Forêt,” which set a new auction record for the artists when it sold for €2m / $2.2m / £1.48m against an estimate of €900,000-1.2m, and Zao Wou-Ki’s “7.8.1965,” painted at the pinnacle of his career according to Sotheby’s, which sold to a private Asian collector for €2.7m / $3m / £1.97m against an estimate of €1.4-2m,Stefano Moreni, Head of Contemporary Art, Sotheby’s Paris, said: “It’s been an outstanding week for Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s in France. The market for works defined by a classical French post-war aesthetic is truly alive and kicking. It was a privilege to offer two masterpieces by Jean Dubuffet, who is scaling new heights at auction, and there was a strong appetite for ‘School of Paris’ artists. Collectors responded to the exceptional quality and freshness of the work we sourced, reflected in the depth of bidding from around the world.”
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