Emily Landau’s art collection, sold on Wednesday night and which included the masterpiece of Picasso “Femme à la montre”became the most profitable ever sold by a female collector, according to the house of auctions Sotheby’sorganizer of the sale.
Emily Fisher Landau, who died at the age of 102 last March at her home in Florida, owned one of the most precious collections of contemporary art in the United States, which had been assembled over a lifetime of “voracious” collecting, in the words of Sotheby’s.
Wednesday’s sale, with some of the biggest names in 20th century plastic art, reached a total price of US$406.4 million, with five works that each exceeded the price of US$20 million.
The jewel of the session was the painting by Picasso (painted in 1932), sold for 139.4 million dollars, the most expensive painting sold on the market in 2023 and the third most expensive ever sold of those produced by the Malaga artist , after “Femmes d’Alger” (auctioned in 2005 for 179 million) and “Le rève”acquired in a private sale in 2012.
After the Picasso, Jasper Johns (“Flags”, 41 million), Ed Ruscha (“Securing the last letter (Boss)”Cy Twombly (“No title”US$ 23 million) and another by Mark Rothko (“No title”22.1 million).
As usual, Sotheby’s does not reveal the names of the buyers, but it did let it be known this Thursday that a good part of the sales were to Asia, specifically works by Andy Warhol, Mark Rothko, Robert Indiana, Cy Twombly, Jean Arp and Georgia O’Keeffe.
The Asian market, which has ceased to be emerging to become one of the main poles of the artistic commercial movement, includes the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Hong Kong and the economic capital of the United Arab Emirates, Dubai, cities where a good part of contemporary artistic collections.
A second sale of pieces is planned this Thursday “minors” of Landau, which will rival the auction that will be carried out by Christie’s, Sotheby’s great competitor in the art market in New York.
Source: Gestion
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
