Date: Sat 04-Jul-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: JUDIR

Quick Words:

Sothebys-Monet

Full Text:

Monet Landscape Sells For œ19,801,500 At Sotheby's London/LB

(w/2 cuts)

LONDON, ENGLAND -- A landscape by Claude Monet sold for a record œ19,801,500

($33,002,500) at Sotheby's in London on Tuesday, June 30, making it the most

expensive Impressionist painting sold in any European auction since 1990.

"Waterlily pond and path by the water," a painting of the Japanese bridge and

water garden that Monet created at his home in Giverny in France, is one of a

series of paintings which is widely acknowledged as among the greatest

achievements of Impressionism. It was bought by an anonymous telephone bidder

who paid the exceptional price of œ19,801,500 ($33,002,500) against a pre-sale

estimate of œ4/6 million ($6.6/9.9 million). The price is an auction record

for the artist; the most expensive painting ever sold at auction.

Executed in 1900, "Waterlily pond and path by the water" had not been seen on

the market for the past 44 years. It had been purchased by a private British

collector in 1954 for œ4,500 and had remained in his collection. Its

reappearance caused much excitement among art historians, collectors and the

many hundreds of people who saw the picture when it was on view at Sotheby's

prior to the sale.

Philip Hook, senior director of Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art

Department in London, said, "There was exceptional interest in the Monet

before the sale and we anticipated a strong price. However, the œ19,801,500 it

achieved was considerably above our expectations and represents a big boost to

the London market. Overall, the results prove that works by Nineteenth and

Twentieth Century masters offered in the same well-edited sale will produce

outstanding prices."

The sale also featured Amedeo Modigliani's beautiful 1918 portrait of the

Polish emigree Baranowski that sold for œ4,291,500 ($7,152,500). One of

Modigliani's most distinguished and sensitive portraits, the painting was from

the collection of Sir Robert and Lady Sainsbury. The proceeds of the sale will

be used to establish a Research Unit for Japanese Cultural Studies at the

University of East Anglia.

The portrait of playwright Henrik Ibsen by Edvard Munch, a work that brings

together two Norwegians who dominated art and literature in Europe in the

second half of the Nineteenth Century, sold for œ1,761,500 ($2,935,830)

against a pre-sale estimate of œ500,000/700,000 ($830,000/1,150,000).

The painting shows Ibsen, possibly the most influential European dramatist of

the Nineteenth Century, seated in the cafe of the Grand Hotel in Oslo. It was

painted circa 1891.

A pastel of four ballet dancers by Edgar Degas sold to another anonymous buyer

for œ2,641,500 ($4,402,500). Entitled "Preparation pour la classe," the Degas

pastel demonstrates the artist's mastery of the medium and his lifelong

fascination with the movement of dance. It shows four young girls preparing

themselves for the class, mingling casually and adjusting their costumes

before the luminous windows of a dance studio.

The sale also set records for Alexander Archipenko's "Nature Morte, Nu a la

Table" which sold for œ584,500 and Charles Angrand's "La Seine a Courbevoi-La

Grande Jatte" which sold for œ485,500.