{"id":7281,"date":"2026-04-18T20:07:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T20:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/7281\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T20:07:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T20:07:18","slug":"sothebys-paris-notches-41m-in-20th-century-sale-led-by-12m-monet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/7281\/","title":{"rendered":"Sotheby\u2019s Paris Notches $41M. in 20th-Century Sale, Led by $12M. Monet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tTwo paintings by French Impressionist Claude Monet<\/a> led a Sotheby\u2019s Paris sale of modern and contemporary art on Thursday that racked up \u20ac35 million ($41 million). That figure is up more than 84 percent on the equivalent sale from last year and exceeds the pre-sale estimate of \u20ac22.4\u2013\u20ac32.1 million ($26.6\u2013$37.8 million). The total was the house\u2019s second-highest ever in France for a sale in the category. Nearly 63 percent of lots sold above their high estimates, and 66 percent of lots were making their auction debut.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cToday\u2019s results mark a defining moment for Sotheby\u2019s and for Paris more widely,\u201d Thomas Bompard, co-head of modern and contemporary art, Sotheby\u2019s Paris, said in a statement. \u201cFrom the extraordinary Monet prices achieved, to the electric atmosphere and spirited bidding that animated a packed saleroom, the auction captured a market alive with confidence as collectors from around the world leaned in, competed, and ultimately turned their eyes once again to Paris.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Articles<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

\n\tThe sale was led by Monet\u2019s V\u00e9theuil, effet du matin (1901), which, at \u20ac10.2 million ($12.1 million), established the highest price for a work by the artist at auction in France, while the artist\u2019s Les \u00celes de Port-Villez (1883) fetched \u20ac6.5 million ($7.6 million).<\/p>\n

\n\tV\u00e9theuil, effet du matin had been unseen in public for some 98 years, and had been in the same French private collection for more than five decades. The piece exceeded its \u20ac6\u2013\u20ac8 million ($7.1\u2013$9.5 million) estimate after 10 minutes of bidding.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tClaude Monet, Les \u00celes de Port-Villez (1883).<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEl\u00e9a Lef\u00e8vre<\/p>\n

\n\tLes \u00celes de Port-Villez (1883), measuring just under three feet wide, was shown publicly for the first time in 115 years and exceeded its \u20ac3\u2013\u20ac5 million ($3.5 million to $5.9 million) estimate.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso selling well were a group of seven original gouaches by Marc Chagall<\/a> from his \u201cCircus\u201d series, that came directly from the artist\u2019s estate and were the first ever to appear at auction. Two sold above estimate for \u20ac1.1 million ($1.4 million) each. Lucio Fontana<\/a>\u2019s Concetto Spaziale, Attese (1968), a sapphire\u2011blue canvas cut by two vertical slashes, exceeded estimate, selling for \u20ac2 million ($2.4 million).<\/p>\n

\n\tOther works exceeding estimate and fetching six-figure prices were Rembrandt Bugatti\u2019s bronze Tigre royal (conceived ca. 1913\u201314, cast in bronze between 1922 and 1927), in the same private collection since 1927, which sold for \u20ac1.7 million ($1.9 million), and Chu Teh-Chun\u2018s painting Le son des cuivres II (1988), which doubled its high estimate to achieve \u20ac1.2 million ($1.4 million). Selling for almost four times its high estimate was Gerhard Richter<\/a>\u2019s Untitled (9. Nov. 1995), which sold for \u20ac473,600 ($558,659).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two paintings by French Impressionist Claude Monet led a Sotheby\u2019s Paris sale of modern and contemporary art on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6003,6004,6005,6006,6007,30,6008],"class_list":["post-7281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-paris","tag-claude-monet","tag-gerhard-richter","tag-impressionism","tag-lucio-fontana","tag-marc-chagall","tag-paris","tag-sothebys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}