In New York auctions $2bn already spent but no one is that surprised Art market news In New York auctions $2bn already spent but no one is that surprised Most works at Christie’s auction on Wednesday were guaranteed to sell including Lucian Freud's reclining nude, which fetched an ample price by Charlotte Burns , Gareth Harris | 14 May 2015 Lucian Freud's Benefits Supervisor Resting (1994) sold for $56.2m Reddit Last night’s bumper sale of postwar and contemporary art at Christie’s means that more than $2bn has been spent so far this fortnight in the New York auctions of Impressionist and Modern and postwar and contemporary art. More than $1bn of this sum has been spent at Christie’s this week—a record spree in such a short amount of time. Wednesday’s 82-lot sale was an exercise in stamina and spending, with $658.5m spent in two-and-a-half hours during which 88% of the works sold. It followed Monday evening’s standalone sale, Looking Forward to the Past, which totaled $705.9m for 35 lots.

Fifty of the lots were guaranteed—a whopping 61%—either by Christie’s, third parties or a combination of the two, and their combined pre-sale high estimate was almost $500m. (On Monday, 69% were guaranteed to sell.) There was lively bidding for the auction’s cover lot, Mark Rothko’s No. 10 (1958), which came with an estimate in excess of $45m and was guaranteed by the house. The work was consigned by a private US collector who had bought the painting from Pace Gallery in 1985, and loaned it to an exhibition at Tate London the following year. There were at least six bidders for the canvas, including the dealer Jose Mugrabi and Christie’s staffers such as Amin Jaffer, the international director of Asian art; Ana-Maria Celis, a postwar and contemporary art specialist, and Lisa Layfer, the director of business development for the same department. The work eventually hammered at $73m to Layfer.

Its $81.9m total, when fees were added, came close to the $86.9m record set in 2012 for Rothko’s Orange, Red, Yellow (1961). There was a world record set for Lucian Freud at $56.2m (with fees) when the private dealer Pilar Ordovas bought his painting Benefits Supervisor Resting (1994), in which the amply proportioned British government worker Sue Tilley reclines resplendently. The work—which was guaranteed by the house—had been estimated to sell for between $30m and $50m. “I’d call that an ample price,” said David Nash, the co-founder of Mitchell-Innes and Nash gallery. Demonstrating the vertical recalibration of the market over the past decade, another work in Freud’s four-painting series, Benefits Supervisor Sleeping (1995), had briefly held the title of the most expensive work by a living artist when the collector Roman Abramovich bought it for $33.6m in 2008. (Freud died in 2011.

The record for a living artist now belongs to Jeff Koons, whose orange Balloon Dog (1994-2000) sold for $58.4m at Christie’s in 2013.) A large and unusual work by Jean-Michel Basquiat, The Field Next to the Other Road (1981), which features a stick figure man leading a cow, was the sixth highest lot, selling for $37.1m (with fees, est $25m-$35m). The private dealer Christophe Van de Weghe underbid the work, which had been consigned by the dealer Tony Shafrazi. “I was sorry not to get it,” Van de Weghe said. “I tried to buy the work once before in the 1990s at the start of my career. It was on offer then between $125,000 and $175,000 and was bought in, which meant I could have bought it the next day for $75,000—but I didn’t have the money then.” Meanwhile, bidding stalled quickly for Francis Bacon’s Portrait of Henrietta Moraes (1963).

It made $47.8m—a significant return for the consignor who had bought it just three years ago at Christie’s London for $33.4m, though its swift return to market contributed to its falling a little short of the pre-sale hype, dealers said. “It was a strong sale—you’re almost not surprised anymore,” said the European dealer Thaddaeus Ropac as he left the saleroom. “It’s an unreal world—we had a great opening at Frieze, and now these auctions. You need to be careful not to get used to it.” You might also like Christie's Megasale Totals $658.5 Million - artnet News Read Caption Close Jean-Michel Basquiat, The Field Next to the Other Road (1981), acrylic, enamel spray paint, oilstick, metallic paint and ink on canvas. Photo courtesy Christie’s.

Skip Ad In a night of frenzied selling, Christie’s New York racked up $658.5 million from the world’s wealthiest over a two-and-a-quarter-hour sale of postwar and contemporary art, on the same day as the VIP preview of the Frieze art fair on Randalls Island (see Ben Davis’s Standout Artworks Amid the Chaos of Frieze New York 2015 and Leonardo DiCaprio, Mike Myers Grace Celebrity VIP Frieze New York Preview ). The astronomical sale saw three works sell for north of $50 million, eight for upwards of $20 million, and 20 for better than $10 million. It was the house’s fifth-highest sale ever. “Fifty million is the new normal,” New York dealer Francis Beatty, of Richard Feigen & Co. , said after the sale. Mark Rothko ’s eight-foot-tall abstract No. 10 (1958) was the prize lot. The painting was guaranteed to sell. Off the market for nearly 30 years, the canvas hasn’t been on public view since 1987.

It features the artist’s trademark floating rectangles of color, in this case deep reds, floating in front of a black ground. Seven anonymous phone bidders slugged it out over nearly six minutes. Even Arte Povera, “poor art,” a post-war Italian movement that expressed scarcity, turned up very rich, with the night’s first offering, a Giovanni Anselmo sculpture estimated at up to $800,000, rising to eight times its high estimate to command $6.4 million, a record for the artist. That set the tone for a night of wild spending. Eight new auction records were set, including for Anselmo, Carroll Dunham ($509,000), Lucian Freud ($56.2 million), Hans Hoffmann ($6.3 million), Robert Ryman ($20.6 million), Sturtevant ($5 million), and Rudolf Stingel ($4.8 million). Robert Rauschenberg ’s 1961 assemblage Johanson’s Painting also set a record when it sold for $18.6 million, beating his previous high by $4 million.

That work was one of 20 lots on offer early in the evening, that came from the collection of fabled New York dealer Ileana Sonnabend, which New York dealer David Zwirner described to artnet News as “beautiful material with a great provenance.” “That was a thing of beauty,” New York dealer Cristin Tierney told artnet News. “Just when you think auctions are about nothing but diamond dust, a bidding war over something rigorous and conceptual restores your faith in an intellectual elite. There are still some collectors out there who are the real deal.” Several of the Sonnabend lots dramatically exceeded their estimates. Coming in second-highest for the night was Andy Warhol ’s Colored Mona Lisa (1962), which went for $56.2 million to New York megadealer Larry Gagosian, bidding from the sales floor against only a single other bidder, after just a two-minute contest. It was created the year after Leonardo da Vinci ’s iconic painting made a tour of the U.S.

London dealer Pilar Ordovas snagged the night’s third-priciest lot, Lucian Freud’s Benefits Supervisor Resting (1994), for $56.2 million. She was bidding from the sales floor against several Christie’s staffers bidding for clients by phone over a five-minute contest. Ordovas was formerly the deputy chairman of postwar and contemporary art for Christie’s Europe. Estimated at up to $50 million, the canvas shows the artist’s friend Sue Tilley, a London government worker, naked and reclining on Freud’s couch, her head thrown back. “It’s a pretty incredible painting and lusciously painted,” Citi Art Advisory’s Suzanne Gyorgy said. Francis Bacon ’s Portrait of Henrietta Moraes (1963) commanded $47.8 million to become the fourth-priciest lot of the night. It went to the house’s Brett Gorvy, who was bidding on behalf of a client by phone, after a contest of only just over a minute. The five-and-a-half-foot-tall canvas shows Bacon’s subject sprawled on a bed, her spread legs facing the viewer, in a luridly hued purple and crimson room.

The seller picked it up at Christie’s London in 2012 for $33.5 million, so it increased in value by nearly half over just three years. Gagosian, bidding from the sales floor, bought an eight-foot-wide untitled Cy Twombly canvas slathered in house paint with drawing in crayon and pencil, which was the night’s top-estimated lot at $55 million. Despite falling short of that dramatic figure, it came in fifth-highest for the night at $42.7 million. Guaranteed to sell, the painting had been off the market and out of public view since it was bought from Gagosian in 1989. That painting was only on the block for about a minute, like the brief contest over the Bacon. Zwirner blamed the limited bidding on those lots on the high guarantee the house had made on the canvases. “When you start off so high,” he said, “it makes it hard for others to jump in.” The Twombly canvas comes from a group of paintings known as the Bolsena works, named for the Italian lake on whose shores the artist painted them.

After his 1964 show at Leo Castelli’s gallery was not well received, according to the sale catalogue, Twombly said he was “the happiest painter around” because “for a couple of years no one gave a damn what I did.” New York dealer Christophe van de Weghe went away disappointed, having bid on a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting, The Field Next to the Other Road, but failing to get it. “Tonight I bid $33 million,” he told artnet News. “When I moved to New York, in 1993, it came up for auction at Sotheby’s. It was estimated at $125,000 to $175,000 but failed to sell. They told me afterward that if I offered $75,000, I could get it.

I thought about it over the weekend but on Monday I told them I didn’t have the money.” “So,” he said, “I’ve failed twice.” Rounding out the night’s top 10 were the Basquiat at $37.1 million, a Franz Kline at $21.4 million, the Ryman, the Rauschenberg, and a Kippenberger for $16.4 million. 10 most Expensive European Artists at Auction - artnet News Pablo Picasso Les Femmes d’Alger (Version O) , 1955. Courtesy of Christie's New York. European artists enjoyed a record-breaking year at auction in 2015. Photo: Yahoo News The global art market remained strong and buoyant in 2015. Boosted by record-shattering auction sales and new buyers from emerging markets , it has been an exciting year for auction houses, dealers, and collectors. According to data from artnet’s Price Database , European artists have had an especially big year at auction.

And despite the sustained hype surrounding contemporary art, it was modern art sales that drove the upper segment of the art market in 2015, with Gerhard Richter the only living, contemporary European artist among the top 10 of the year’s most expensive European artists at auction. Sales in 2015 were led by Pablo Picasso ’s Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’) (1955) which became the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction when it changed hands for $179 million at Christie’s New York in May. The world record was followed closely by the sale of Amadeo Modigliani ’s Nu Couché (1917-1918) which was hammered down at $170 million at Christie’s New York in November, becoming the second-most expensive artwork ever sold at auction. Vincent van Gogh ’s L’Allée des Alyscamps (1888) came in third, selling for $66.3 million at Sotheby’s New York in spring.

Next came Lucian Freud whose Benefits Supervisor Resting (1994) sold for $56.1 million, setting a new auction record for the artist. He is followed by Claude Monet ‘s Nymphéas (1905) and Piet Mondrian ‘s Composition No. III, with Red, Blue, Yellow, and Black (1929) which doubled its high estimate and set a new auction record for the artist when it was hammered down at $50.5 million at Christie’s. Meanwhile, auction darling Francis Bacon came in seventh with the sale of Portrait of Henrietta Moraes (1963) for $47.7 million. The only living artist on the list, Gerhard Richter, came in eighth, followed by auction stalwart Gustav Klimt . Benefitting from the market’s rediscovery of Italian post-war art and Arte Povera, Lucio Fontana ’s Concetto Spaziali, La Fine di Dio (1964) made it to tenth on the list when it was sold for $29.1 million at Christie’s New York in November.

Even though the artists are European, New York once again proved its credentials as the epicenter of the art trade with eight of ten of the top sales taking place there. According to the 2015 TEFAF Art Market Report , the total value of the art market surged past $51 billion in 2014, and with several records falling in 2015 the market is showing no signs of slowing down in 2016. Here are the most expensive artworks by European artists sold at auction in 2015: Pablo Picasso Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’) (1955) Photo: Christie’s Phillips London to Auction Collection of 32 Freud Etchings | BLOUIN ARTINFO Phillips London to Auction Collection of 32 Freud Etchings BY Nicholas Forrest | September 14, 2015 LUCIAN FREUD Woman with an Arm Tattoo, 1996 (detail) Related Lucian Freud Auction house Phillips will auction a rare and important American collection of 32 etchings by the celebrated British artist and master printmaker Lucian Freud on October 15 in London.

The works will be showcased in a dedicated exhibition on the seventh floor of Phillips’ Berkley Square galleries and saleroom from October 9 to 15 before the stand-alone auction on October 15. The impressive collection spans the years 1982 to 2004, a period that begins with the year that Freud returned to etching following a 34-year hiatus from the medium. In addition to depictions of his most famous sitters such as Sue Tilley, Leigh Bowery, David Dawson, and his daughter, Bella, the group also includes canine portraits, landscape, and works after old masters. The highlight of the collection is one of only two extant unpublished proofs of the circa 1985 work “Naked Man on a Sofa,” neither of which have previously appeared at auction. According to Phillips, the work (estimate £120,000-180,000) signals the beginning of an important development in Freud’s practice when he gained the confidence to attempt more complex and challenging etchings.

Accompanying the exhibition will be a catalogue with an introduction written by Sue Tilley, Freud’s muse for four years in the 1990s and the model for a number of his most famous works including “Benefits Supervisor Resting” 1994 which set a new auction record for the artist when it sold for £35.8million at Christie’s May 2015 Post-War and Contemporary Art evening sale in Manhattan. “ Lucian Freud 32 Etchings: Property from an Important American Collection” is on view at Phillips London from October 9 to 15. More info here . Lucian Freud portrait of naked benefits supervisor set to sell for £17m | Art and design | The Guardian Close This article is 8 years old Abundantly, gloriously fleshy, the paint gathered in great gobs and whorls, the detail of the skin tone picked out in loving, virtuosic detail, Lucian Freud's Benefits Supervisor Sleeping is a mighty thing, in every possible sense.

Next month, the work, painted in 1995, and now on public view in the UK for the first time, is predicted to become the most expensive painting by a living artist sold at auction, with an estimate of £12.7m-£17.7m. The current record for most expensive piece by a living artist to be sold at auction is held by Jeff Koons' Hanging Heart (Magenta/Gold), which made £11.3m in November 2007. According to Pilar Ordovás, head of postwar and contemporary art at Christie's, Freud's high prices are due to the sheer uncompromising quality of the work, which sees the painstaking, detailed techniques of the Old Masters applied with a thoroughly modernist sensibility. "His appeal is completely global and completely timeless," she says of the 85-year-old painter. "He appeals to both contemporary art lovers and collectors of Old Masters.

He has clearly made a huge contribution to the history of art of the 20th century, and his output is quite small, perhaps producing just five paintings a year." Despite the judders in the markets, particularly in the US, where Benefits Supervisor is to be sold in May, Ordovás said the art market was holding up strongly, particularly for very rare works at the top of the range. The current auction record for a Freud painting is £9.3m, set in November 2007 for IB and her Husband (1992). The portrait's sitter, Sue Tilley - now promoted from benefits supervisor to manager of a Jobcentre Plus in central London - is delighted. "My life's changed overnight," she says. "I'm beside myself, but then lovely things are always happening to me. Still, I'm not surprised - in a way, I always thought this might happen. I love that painting." Is it not a little, well, exposing to have one's magnificently generous breasts and lolling stomach revealed to the world? Tilley laughs: she was nervous, she says, about first stripping off, but quickly got used to it.

Though, she adds: "I know it sounds weird, but even though there'd be no one else there I'd get dressed or put something round me just to go to the loo. I didn't want to become a regular nudist." Of course it was a different thing for the paintings - four were produced during their four-year working relationship - to go out into the world, and to be gawped at by all and sundry. "The first painting he ever did of me [Evening in the Studio, 1993] was finished while there was a big show of his paintings on at the Whitechapel gallery," she says. "So they put it up for the last week of the exhibition. I went in there one day and there was a man giving a talk in front of the picture, saying, look at this revolting woman, she's so fat and disgusting, there's obviously something wrong with her skin. I just started laughing. The man stopped and asked if there was anything wrong. I said: 'That's me you're talking about,' and he just looked like he wanted to die. After that I didn't really mind what people said. "I'm not the 'ideal woman', I know I'm not.

But who is? And he never made the skinny ones look any better. He picks out every single little detail." Tilley and Freud were introduced by a mutual friend - Leigh Bowery, whom Tilley had met in a nightclub in the early 1980s, and whose biography she wrote. Bowery's name for Tilley was Big Sue, and she was one of several sitters the performance artist recommended to the painter. The first work had her posing, in great discomfort, prostrate on the studio floor - "and he made me look so horrible. I'm shaking now as I think of it." For Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, however, Freud bought the sofa for her to rest on. "It was lovely and comfy, and I just lay on it, really, for nine months." For this work, painted in daylight, Tilley showed up at Freud's studio early to catch the first light. "I might arrive at 7am. Then we'd sit in the kitchen, have a little chat, have breakfast, a snack. The first session would be quite long, when we were both quite fresh and there weren't many interruptions. "Sometimes he'd take me out for lunch, which I liked, and we'd work again in the afternoon.

It was quite exhausting, just lying there. I know it sounds silly, but it was." Freud's Benefits Supervisor Sleeping is on view at Christie's, London SW1, until April 15. Model sitters Harry Diamond Freud's friend featured in Interior in Paddington (1951), part of the Festival of Britain. Though he complained about sitting, Freud painted Diamond several times. Francis Bacon Bacon had painted a portrait of Freud in 1951, and in the following year Freud painted Bacon's portrait in oils on a small copper plate. His mother Freud painted his mother many times, and the day after her death he drew The Painter's Mother Dead. Leigh Bowery A transvestite performance artist, Bowery was an experienced model, and he sat frequently. The Queen Freud's portrait created controversy among the media and the public. Sittings happened at St James's Palace in 2001 and 2002. Freud asked that the Queen wore the diamond crown seen on banknotes and stamps. Kate Moss Moss is one of the few Freud models who have suggested themselves for the job, which she did in a magazine article.

Caroline White Most Expensive Paintings Sold at Auction in 2015 - Bloomberg Bloomberg the Company & Its Products Bloomberg Anywhere Remote LoginBloomberg Anywhere Login Bloomberg Terminal Demo Request Bloomberg Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world. Customer Support Advertising Bloomberg Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world. Customer Support These 10 Artworks Alone Totaled $1 Billion at Auction This Year The $100 million club is getting crowded. by @jstarmy More stories by James Tarmy Jim Chanos: Art Is Not an Investment Barring a sudden mania for illustrated Haggadahs at next week's Important Judaica sale at Sotheby's New York, the top 10 art auction lots of 2015 have already been decided. What did it take to make it into the top 10 this year?

Well, it certainly helped if the lot were a painting (9 out of 10), depicting a woman (6 out of 10), and created by a white, male artist (10 out of 10). It further helped if it were sold in New York (10 out of 10), at Christie's (7 out of 10), and at an evening sale (10 out of 10.) Finally, it greatly improved a lot's odds to be by Pablo Picasso, who painted three of the artworks in the top 10. Add it all up and what do you get? Nine-hundred and ninety six million dollars (again: That's $996 million) and change. Travel with us, drive with us, eat with us. Get our weekly Pursuits newsletter. Sign Up Your guide to the most important business stories of the day, every day. You will now receive the Business newsletter Politics The latest political news, analysis, charts, and dispatches from Washington. You will now receive the Politics newsletter Markets The most important market news of the day. So you can sleep an extra five minutes.

You will now receive the Markets newsletter Technology Insights into what you'll be paying for, downloading and plugging in tomorrow and 10 years from now. You will now receive the Technology newsletter Game Plan The school, work and life hacks you need to get ahead. You will now receive the Game Plan newsletter The auction houses have yet to release their official 2015 totals, but anyone browsing this year's sales results could tell you that the super-high end of the art market bears an increasingly tenuous connection to the rest of the art world. Put another way, it's like trying to make a judgment about the airline industry based on Gulfstream G650 sales. Forget emerging artists and galleries . Christie's November postwar and contemporary art day sales in New York included over 300 lots of similar, slightly less-sought-after works by artists that included Jeff Koons, Alexander Calder, and Andy Warhol and totaled just under $89 million, an amount that would slot in only at No. 5 on the following list.

The same for Sotheby's, whose November contemporary day sales totaled $98 million, and whose bestselling lot was an oil painting by Roy Lichtenstein that sold for $3.4 million, or 1.89 percent of the price of this year's top-selling Picasso. So what makes the following artworks so special , aside from totaling almost $1 billion? Scroll down and judge for yourself. 1. Pablo Picasso, Les femmes d'Alger (Version 'O'), 1955 Pablo Picasso, Les Femmes d’Alger, 1955 Source: Courtesy of Christie's Images Ltd. 2015 Sold for $179,365,000 at Christie's 2. Amedeo Modigliani, Nu couché, 1917-1918 Amedeo Modigliani, Nu Couche, 1917-1918 Source: Courtesy of Christie’s Images Ltd. 2015 Sold for $170,405,000 at Christie's 3.

Alberto Giacometti, L'homme au doigt, 1947 Alberto Giacometti, L'Homme au doigt, 1947 Source: Courtesy of Christie’s Images Ltd. 2015/© 2015 Alberto Giacometti Estate/Licensed by VAGA and ARS, New York Sold for $141,285,000 at Christie's 4. Roy Lichtenstein, Nurse, 1964 Roy Lichtenstein, Nurse, 1964 Source: Courtesy of Christie's Images Ltd. 2015 Sold for $95,365,000 at Christie's 5. Mark Rothko, No. 10, 1958 Mark Rothko, No. 10, 1958 Source: Courtesy of Christie’s Images Ltd. 2015 Sold for $81,925,000 at Christie's 6.

Cy Twombly, Untitled (New York City), 1968 Cy Twombly, Untitled (New York City), 1968 Source: Sotheby's Sold for $70,530,000 at Sotheby's 7. Pablo Picasso, La Gommeuse, 1901 Pablo Picasso, La Gommeuse, 1901 Source: Sotheby's Sold for $67,450,000 at Sotheby's 8. Pablo Picasso, Buste de femme (Femme à la résille), 1938 Pablo Picasso, Buste de femme (Femme à la résille), 1938 Source: Courtesy of Christie’s Images Ltd. 2015 Sold for $67,365,000 at Christie's 9.

Vincent van Gogh, L'Allée des Alyscamps, 1888 Vincent van Gogh, L'Allée des Alyscamps, 1888 Source: Sotheby's Sold for $66,330,000 at Sotheby's 10. Lucian Freud, Benefits Supervisor Resting, 1994 Lucian Freud, Benefits Supervisor Resting, 1994 Source: Courtesy of Christie’s Images Ltd. 2015 Sold for $56,165,000 at Christie's For the best in travel, food, drinks, fashion, cars, and life, sign up for the Pursuits newsletter . Delivered weekly. Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. The 10 Most Expensive Artworks of 2015 The 10 Most Expensive Artworks of 2015 Artsy Editorial Dec 20th, 2015 12:00 pm 2015 has been a record-breaking year for the art market.

Buyers remain willing to spend unparalleled sums, with focus remaining predominantly on works from Modern, Contemporary and Post-War categories. Christie’s heavy use of lot guarantees (the promise of a certain minimum price to the artwork’s consigner) allowed the house to bring in many of the biggest numbers this year. They sold eight of the 10 most expensive lots listed below and notably achieved the first ever $1 billion week by a single auction house at Christie’s New York in May. With every work in the year’s top 10 surpassing the 50-million-dollar mark, it’s easy to see this figure as the new normal. Some warn, though, that these figures—concentrated to the New York sales—may not be an accurate representation of the global market, an observation which might be reflected in the houses’ annual reports. And despite record-breaking sales, none of the works to make it into the top 10 are by female artists, a disparity which should be addressed.

$179.4 Million Pablo Picasso, Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’), 1955 CHRISTIE’S NEW YORK Picasso, Les femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’), 1955. Price Realized: $179,365,000. Courtesy of Christie’s Images ltd. 2015. Playing to the market for trophy works, Christie’s presented Les Femmes d’Alger at its “Looking Forward to the Past” Post-War and Contemporary auction on May 11th. Following a bidding war by a pair of Christie’s employees on behalf of anonymous phone bidders, the work sold for $179.4 million, breaking the record for the most expensive painting ever sold at auction. The piece is one of Picasso’s most iconic works and is from a series of 15 variations on Delacroix ’s Femmes d’Alger dans leur appartement (1834). Picasso began creating versions of the image (labeled “A” to “O”) in the weeks following the death of his contemporary, friend, and rival Henri Matisse .

The work references the odalisque, a subject left to Picasso by Matisse, most evidently manifesting in the female nude at the bottom of the painting. $170.4 Million Amedeo Modigliani , Nu couché, 1917-18 CHRISTIE’S NEW YORK Amedeo Modigliani, Nu couché, 1917-18. Price Realized: $170,405,000. Courtesy of Christie’s Images ltd. 2015. The sale of Modigliani’s Nu couché, at the “The Artist’s Muse” sale in November, marked the second-highest price ever paid for a work of art at auction. The painting’s new owner is Liu Yiqian, a taxi driver-turned billionaire, whose arsenal of pieces includes the Meiyintang “Chicken Cup.” As for Modigliani’s nude, six people locked horns, bidding for the lot, which sold in just nine minutes and marked Modigliani’s entry into the nine-figure club—joining the likes of Bacon, Warhol, and Picasso.

The work, an ode to Modigliani’s defiance of war, is once again causing ripples, just as it did when first exhibited in Paris at Galerie Berthe Weill in 1917 to a gaping public. $141.3 Million Alberto Giacometti , L’homme au doigt, 1947 Christie’s New York Alberto Giacometti, L'homme au doigt, conceived in 1947. Price Realized: $141,285,000. Courtesy of Christie’s Images ltd. 2015. Giacometti’s bronze, L’homme au doigt (Pointing Man), sold for $141.3 million at the “Looking Forward to the Past” auction in May. The work set a new all-time auction record for the most expensive sculpture. It was the second sculpture by the artist to sell at auction for more than $100 million in the space of six months (Chariot sold for $101 million in November 2014).

One of six casts—four of which belong to museums—the piece was made in one night for inclusion in Giacometti’s first exhibition at the Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, in 1948. $95.4 Million Christie’s New York Roy Lichtenstein, Nurse, 1964. Price Realized: $95,365,000. Courtesy of Christie’s Images ltd. 2015. Despite the lack of a speech or thought bubble, which often hike up the price of Lichtenstein’s work, Nurse sold for $95.4 million, smashing the Pop artist’s auction record from 2013, when Woman with Flowered Hat (1963) brought in $56.1 million. Part of the “The Artist’s Muse” sale, Nurse was inspired by an image from a ’60s comic book and last appeared at auction in 1995, when it sold for $1.7 million. Described by Christie’s as “a quintessential Lichtenstein heroine,” the female subject is the ultimate femme fatale, with striking features highlighted by Ben-Day dots.

$81.9 Million Christie’s New York Mark Rothko, No. 10, 1958. Price Realized: $81,925,000. Courtesy of Christie’s Images ltd. 2015. Seven bidders competed for Rothko’s No. 10, with ended up going for $81.9 million—the second highest figure for a work by the abstract artist, a founding father of the New York School . The work had been off the market for nearly 30 years, and Christie’s New York Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale on May 13th marked its first time on public view since 1987. The painting, which exhibits the Rothko’s trademark patches of color, marked a shift in focus for the artist, whose use of dark, rusty hues was a definite contrast to his vibrant earlier pieces. $70.53 Million Cy Twombly , Untitled (New York City), 1968 Sotheby’s New York Cy Twombly, Untitled [New York City], 1968. Price Realized: $70,530,000. Courtesy Sotheby’s.

Twombly’s Untitled (1968), part of his “blackboard” series, broke the artist’s auction record during the Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction on November 11th. The piece exceeded its presale estimate of $60 million to become the most expensive lot Sotheby’s sold this year. It was offered by Audrey Irmas, a Los Angeles-based philanthropist, who will dedicate some of the profits towards the construction of an events center. The “blackboard” works, painted between 1966 and 1973, recall Twombly’s experience as a cryptologist at the Pentagon and are acclaimed for their use of grey, traditionally considered to be a difficult color for an artist to master. $67.5 Million Pablo Picasso, La Gommeuse, 1901 Sotheby’s New York Pablo Picasso, La Gommeuse, 1901. Price Realized: $67,450,000. Courtesy Sotheby’s.

When collector and former owner of Picasso’s La Gommeuse, William Koch, began conservation on the work in 2000, the canvas lining revealed a crude portrayal of Picasso’s anarchist friend, Pere Mañach, urinating on the canvas. The image included the inscription “Recuerdo a Mañach en el día de su santo” (I remember Mañach on his Saint's Day), suggesting that Picasso gave Mañach the work as a birthday card. Painted at the start of Picasso’s Blue Period and following the suicide of Carlos Casagemas, the artist’s friend, the main image shows a nude cabaret performer, a product of the debauchery and tragedy which fuelled Picasso’s creative output. $67.4 Million Pablo Picasso, Buste de Femme (Femme à la Résille), 1938 Christie’s New York Pablo Picasso, Buste de femme (Femme à la résille), 1938. Price Realized: $67,365,000. Courtesy of Christie’s Images ltd. 2015.

A portrait of Dora Maar, the artist’s lover and photographer, Buste de Femme (Femme à la Résille) became the third most expensive lot in Christie’s “Looking Forward to the Past” auction, which featured works spanning from 1902 to 2011. Consigned by casino magnate Steve Wynn and given a guarantee by the auction house, the piece exceeded its presale high estimate of $55 million. $56.2 Million Andy Warhol , Colored Mona Lisa, 1963 Christie’s New York Colored Mona Lisa Christie's This silkscreen work was sold to Larry Gagosian at Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Evening Sale in May. The piece features the image of the Mona Lisa, taken from a brochure, which Warhol adapted with his trademark Pop Art style, using colors associated with the commercial printing process. Always market savvy, Warhol created the piece to capitalize on the hype surrounding the first time the real Mona Lisa (1503-1506) was loaned to a foreign nation (it was put on display in the United States in January, 1963).

$56.2 Million Lucian Freud , Benefits Supervisor Resting, 1994 Christie’s New York Lucian Freud, Benefits Supervisor Resting, 1994. Price Realized: $56,165,000. Courtesy of Christie’s Images ltd. 2015. From a series of four works, the portrait of benefits supervisor Sue Tilley was sold to dealer Pilar Ordovas for an undisclosed buyer during Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale on May 13th. The sale, which surpassed the work’s presale high estimate of $50 million, marked an auction record for the artist. Previously, a painting from the same series, Benefits Supervisor Sleeping (1995), broke the record for the most expensive work by a living artist sold at auction when it fetched $33.6 million in 2008. —Katharine Worley and Pierre Naquin

Question: Whose painting, ‘Benefits Supervisor Resting’, sold for £35.8million at auction?
Answer: LUCIAN FREUD