Tuesday, June 24, 2008

High Prices for Low Art

Christy's of London had a record setting auction price for a Monet painting today -- $80.4 million dollars for “Le Bassin aux Nymphéas." It is a pretty painting, but since Monet's work has been reproduced endlessly on everything from shower curtains to umbrellas to trash cans, it just doesn't seem like it's all that special.

The auction of Impressionist and Modern Art included works from Signac, Bonnard, Matisse, Degas, Renoir, Chagall, Picasso, Kandinsky, Lipchitz, Leger, Gaugin, Cezanne, Pissarro, Magritte, Kirchner, and Miro. Another record was set for highest price for a painting by a woman -- $10,870,506 -- for "Les Fleurs" by Natalia Goncharova.


Lowest sale: "Environs du Faou" by Eugene Boudin (1824-1898) $61,438. Looks like a comparative bargain.


But the most interesting work was by Egon Schiele. A gouache "Liegende Frau mit grünen Hausschuhen" has echoes of Japanese woodblock and pillow book, perverse and beautiful. The bedroom slippers a nice touch. And only $4,264,746.

Christie's Auction Results
NYT: A Monet Sets a Record

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