A painting by Henri Matisse sold for €32.1 million – a record price for a work by the French artist at auction – at a sale of art from the estate of Yves Saint Laurent, auction house Christie’s said.
The sale came at the start of a three-day Paris auction of art from the collection of the late French fashion designer that some are calling “the sale of the century”.
A Piet Mondrian painting that had inspired one of Saint Laurent’s most memorable dresses sold for almost €20 million.
Sales reached €206 million in the auction’s first day – marked by six record prices for works by individual artists sold at auction, Christie’s said. Fierce bidding in the cavernous, glass-topped Grand Palais museum hall quieted concerns that the global financial crisis might damage the auction’s prospects. “I never doubted the success of this sale,” Pierre Bergé, Saint Laurent’s long-time partner, told reporters.
Matisse's 1911 oil painting, Les Coucous, Tapis Bleu et Rose (The Cowslips, Blue and Rose Fabric), sold for €32.1 million (€35 million including the buyer's premium), Christie's said. Mondrian's 1922 painting, Composition in Blue, Red, Yellow and Black, with rectangles of saturated colours that had inspired Saint Laurent's 1965 shift dress, sold for €19.2 million.
Christie’s said the buyers mostly came from North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.