Sotheby’s Holds A Record-Breaking Auction

Despite the fact that only 58 of 73 lots were sold, auction house Sotheby’s was able to collect a record total for the entire 270 year history if its existence – $422.1 million. As The New York Times reports, the main deal of the auction was a purchase of Alberto Giacometti’s “Chariot” sculpture for $101 million.

Amedeo Modigliani “Tête” sculpture was sold for $100.965 million (the previous price of a similar art-piece was $69.000 million). Van Gogh’s “Still Life, Vase With Daisies and Poppies,” painted weeks before the artist’s death, was sold for $61.765 million (it was expected to sell for $30 to $50 million). Claude Monet’s painting “Alice Hoschedé au Jardin,” showing the artist’s 37-year-old lover, was sold for $33.765 million.

The record price for a single art piece was not beat: $142.4 million for “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” by Francis Bacon.