Modigliani Portrait Soars at Sotheby's $73m 'Modernités' Auction in Paris

A work by Amedeo Modigliani, which had a guarantee, was the headline sale at Sotheby's 'Modernités' auction on October 24 in Paris.

• The sale totaled $73.16m (EUR63.05m), exceeding the pre-sale high estimate.

Snapshot of the sale

• 35 works sold totaling $73.16m.
• Estimates totaled: $43.26m (low) and $60.96m (high), excluding premiums.
• The sell-through rate was 80% of the original 44 lots announced.

The star lot was: Amedeo Modigliani, Elvire en buste (1918), which sold for $31.31m, 390% above its $6.38m low estimate. The work was backed by a guarantee. It has been traded 6 times in the past.

The artist traveled to the South of France to escape Paris, which was being bombarded by German artillery in 1918. There he found a young girl named Elvire who became his model for this and other seductive portraits.

Modigliani's portrait of Elvire was also the sale's outperformer in terms of selling above its low estimate.

It was followed by Roy Lichtenstein's 1992 screenprint, Water Lily Pond with Reflections (from the Water Lilies series), which was from the artist and his wife's collection and backed by a guarantee.

• 17 works, or 49%, sold above their high estimate.
• 16 works, or 46%, sold within their low and high estimate.
• 2 works, or 6%, sold below their low estimate.
• 0 sold with undisclosed estimates.

Guaranteed sales

13 works were backed by guarantees, including: Roy Lichtenstein, Interior with Shadow (1993). It sold for $2.67m, 8% below its $2.9m low estimate.. It has been traded once in the past.

Works that did not sell

6 works were bought-in, including: Joan Mitchell, Untitled (1975), estimated at $4.63m (low) to $6.94m (high). It has been traded twice in the past.

Withdrawn before the sale

3 works were withdrawn before the sale, including: Robert Motherwell, Uccello's Space: A la pintura (1973) estimated at $694,300 (low) to $925,700 (high).

Terms and definitions

All results include the fees and premiums added to the price of a work of art when the auctioneer's hammer falls. Estimates, sale prices and totals are converted into US dollars. Sale prices are compared to the auction house’s low estimate, which do not include premiums.

Guarantees: Sometimes an auction house guarantees to pay a seller for a work, regardless of whether the bidding reaches the reserve price, a figure that is typically confidential.

Bought-in: If there are no bids for a work, or if bidding falls short of the reserve price, the lot is unsold or “bought-in”.

Withdrawn: This happens when a seller decides, for whatever reason, to withdraw a work before the bidding begins.

Premiums: Typically a sliding-scale of charges paid in addition to the hammer price by the buyer, plus any other fees.