 PARIS - At the inaugural session Monday of the sale of the Collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, 59 works of Impressionist and Modern art sold for $266 million, a record for the most valuable auction ever conducted in Europe.
More than 1,200 collectors and dealers from around the world attended the sale, which is being offered by Christie's in association with Pierre Bergé & Associates auctioneers.
The top lot of the evening was Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose, 1911, by Henri Matisse, which sold for $46.4 million, the highest price ever achieved for a work by the artist at auction. In addition to Matisse, artists achieving world records were Brancusi, Mondrian, De Chirico, Duchamp, Klee and Ensor.
Eight works of art sold for more than over $6.4 million and 25 works sold for more than $1 million. Seventy percent of the lots went to European buyers, 30 percent to Americans.
"Collectors, gathered in the largest saleroom that Christie's has ever seated, responded to the opportunity of a lifetime to buy into a collection carefully assembled over almost five decades," said Thomas Seydoux, Christie's international head of Impressionist and Modern Art. "This historical sale demonstrated the timeless appeal of Impressionist and Modern art, this long-established and highly valued category."
Additional highlights of the sale included Le Danseur, 1937-38, by Matisse. Painted in the artist's 70th year, it is one of a series of experimental collages and marked the first time he was carving directly into color. It sold for $8.7 million. His Nu au bord de la mer, 1909, sold for $10.6 million.
Madame L.R. (Portrait de Mme L.R.), a magnificent example of Constantin Brancusi's earliest and enigmatic sculptures in wood, sold for $37.7 million, a world record for the artist at auction. Bought by Saint Laurent and Bergé in the 1970s, the first owner of this sculpture was the painter Fernand Léger, who directly received it in exchange for a painting sometime after 1918, the year he and Brancusi met.
Three abstract paintings by Piet Mondrian all sold above their high estimates. Composition avec bleu, rouge, jaune et noir, 1922, sold for $27.9 million, a world record for the artist at auction. Composition avec grille 2, 1918, sold for $18.6 million and Composition I, 1920, sold for $9 million.
Fernand Léger's great mechanical paintings of 1918 and 1919, painted during one of his most brilliant periods, drew significant attention. Composition, dans l'usine, 1918, sold for $7.2 million. La tasse de thé, 1921, reached $14.8 million.
The ready-made masterpiece La Belle Haleine - Eau de Voilette by Marcel Duchamp, with the assistance by Man Ray in 1921, realized $11.5 million, nearly nine times its estimate and a world auction record for the artist.
James Ensor's monumental Le désespoir de Pierrot, the most important work of art by the artist to be presented at auction in the last 25 years, and since the very same composition was last seen at auction in the early 1980s, sold for $6.4 million, a world record for the artist at auction.
Il Ritornante, 1918, an oil on canvas by Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978), sold for $14.1 million, a world record for the artist at auction.
Paul Klee's 1932 oil on canvas titled Gartenfigur topped $5.1 million.
The elegant Dancers and Sphere by Alexander Calder sold for $2 million.
The auction continues at the Grand Palais through Wednesday.
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