NEW YORK, 14 May 2018 – Simon Shaw, Co-Head of Sotheby’s Worldwide Impressionist & Modern Art Department, commented: “Three artists have broken the $150 million barrier at auction, but tonight Modigliani became the only artist to have crossed that threshold twice – evidence of the rapid rise in appreciation for his work that we’ve seen in recent years. Tonight’s price is even more remarkable when you consider that the painting last sold for $26.9 million in 2003. Just as artists like Modigliani, Picasso and Monet performed well tonight, so did those who are expanding the boundaries of our market and attracting new collectors each season, such as Rufino Tamayo, Joaquín Torres-García, Georgia O’Keeffe and Mary Cassatt.”

The star of this evening’s sale was Amedeo Modigliani’s 1917 masterpiece Nu couché (sur le côté gauche), which sold for $157.2 million – the highest auction price in Sotheby’s history. The work was purchased at auction by the most recent owner in 2003 for $26.9 million, making tonight’s result a nearly six-fold increase in value. Modigliani belongs to a rarefied league of only three artists to break the $150 million barrier at auction, along with Pablo Picasso and Leonardo da Vinci.

A quarter of all sold works tonight were acquired by Asian private collectors. Those works were led by Pablo Picasso’s dreamy 1932 portrait of Marie-Thérèse Walter, Le Repos, which fetched $36.9 million. A portion of the proceeds from the work will go to charity through The Sue J. Gross Foundation. The painting last sold at auction in 2000 for $7.9 million.

Another highlight of the Picasso group was Famille d’arlequin from 1905, an exquisite example of the artist’s celebrated Rose period that sold for $11.5 million to an Asian private collector. The work is distinguished from his related works of harlequins by the palpable mood of tenderness and domestic life.

Claude Monet’s daring landscape Matinée sur la Seine achieved $20.6 million. The picture was created on Monet’s unconventional ‘studio-boat’, which the artist moored mid-river at the confluence of the Epte and the Seine during the summers of 1896 and 1897. Painted in 1896, the work last sold at auction in 2000 for $5.7 million.

Tonight’s sale marked the formal integration of Modern Latin American Art into Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art sales in New York. The selection of works was led by Rufino Tamayo’s Perro aullando a la Luna (Dog Howling at the Moon), which sold for $5.9 million. Painted in 1942, the superb painting is the last major work from his renowned Animal series remaining in private hands. In addition, Joaquín Torres-García’s Constructivo en blanco y negro con pez from 1931 achieved $951,000 when it sold to a telephone bidder.

The auction also offered works by notable American artists, including Georgia O’Keeffe whose Lake George with White Birch sold to applause for $11.3 million – nearly double its high estimate of $6 million. The work is a pivotal painting that manifests O’Keeffe’s deep connection to the natural world and encapsulates a number of the motifs that would define her career. Mary Cassatt’s A Goodnight Hug achieved $4.5 million, establishing a new auction record for a work on paper by the artist.