Modigliani nude sets European auction record at London art sale

The first part of a London auction of a museum-worthy private art collection raked in $392.6 million Wednesday, powered by an Amedeo Modigliani nude portrait that set a new European record.

Forty-eight works by artists including Picasso, Magritte and Klimt, amassed by Joe Lewis, the ex-owner of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, are being auctioned on Wednesday and Thursday.

Lewis, 89, transferred his majority stake in the London football club to a family trust in 2022 and is now worth £5.8 billion, according to The Sunday Times Rich List.

The Modigliani painting "Nu assis au collier" (Seated Nude Wearing a Necklace) sold for $63.9 million, the highest price achieved for a work by the artist sold at auction in Europe, Sotheby's said. 

Gustav Klimt's full-length society portrait "Bildnis Gertrud Loew" achieved the second highest price of the evening. Pursued by seven bidders, it sold to a private collector from Asia for $47.9 million. 

Lucian Freud's "Sleeping by the Lion Carpet" achieved $38.8 million. 

A nude depiction of his model and muse Sue Tilley, the work had been held in the Lewis Collection since it was acquired from Acquavella Galleries in 1996, the year it was completed. 

Lewis also bought paintings by artists of the Vienna Secession movement such as Egon Schiele, and modernist and surrealist works by Rene Magritte and Pablo Picasso.

The 23 works that go under the hammer Thursday include Picasso's "Buste de femme" (Bust of a woman) from 1938, depicting French artist Dora Maar, valued at £12-18 million.

The current auction sale record for a single private collection in Europe was set in 2009 by the art collection of the late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge.

It had an estimate of 200-300 million euros, but the works eventually sold at Christie's for 373.9 million euros (then about £333 million).

In March, four other paintings from the Lewis Collection by British artists from the School of London group, including Freud and Bacon, sold for £35.8 million in a packed Sotheby's saleroom.

In a return to blockbuster art sales, auctions in New York this spring set record prices for works by Jackson Pollock, Constantin Brancusi and Mark Rothko.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)