Picasso smashes expectations, sets world record at Christie's auction in New York

A vibrant, multi-hued painting from Pablo Picasso set a world record for artwork at auction, selling for $179.4 million US on Monday night, and a sculpture by Alberto Giacometti set a record for most expensive sculpture, at $141.3 million US.

Picasso's Women of Algiers (Version O) and Giacometti's life-size Pointing Man were among dozens of masterpieces from the 20th century Christie's offered in a curated sale titled "Looking Forward to the Past."

Christie's global president, Jussi Pylkkanen, who was the auctioneer, said the two pieces are outstanding works of art.

"I've never worked with two such beautiful objects," he said.

The Picasso price, $179,365,000, and the Giacometti price, $141,285,000, included the auction house's premium. The buyers elected to remain anonymous.

Driven by investment value

Overall, 34 of 35 lots sold at Monday's auction for a total of $706 million.

Experts say the high sale prices were driven by artworks' investment value and by wealthy collectors seeking out the very best works.

"I don't really see an end to it, unless interest rates drop sharply, which I don't see happening in the near future," Manhattan dealer Richard Feigen said.

Impressionist and modern artworks continue to corner the market because "they are beautiful, accessible and a proven value," added Sarah Lichtman, professor of design history and curatorial studies at The New School.

"I think we will continue to see the financiers seeking these works out as they would a blue chip company that pays reliable dividends for years to come," she said.

Blue chip pieces on the block

Women of Algiers, once owned by the American collectors Victor and Sally Ganz, was inspired by Picasso's fascination with the 19th-century French artist Eugene Delacroix. It is part of a 15-work series Picasso created in 1954-1955 designated with the letters A through O. It has appeared in several major museum retrospectives of the Spanish artist.

The most expensive artwork sold at auction had been held by Francis Bacon's Three Studies of Lucian Freud, which Christie's sold for $142.4 million in 2013.

• Francis Bacon painting sells for auction record $142M US

Pointing Man, depicting a skinny 5-foot-high bronze figure with extended arms, has been in the same private collection for 45 years. Giacometti, who died in 1966, made six casts of the work; four are in museums, the others are in private hands and a foundation collection.

His Walking Man I holds the auction record for a sculpture. It sold for $104.3 million in 2010.

Doig also smashes record

Among other highlights at Christie's is Peter Doig's Swamped, a 1990 painting of a solitary canoe in a moonlit lagoon, which sold for slightly less than $26 million, a record for the British artist.

Claude Monet's The Houses of Parliament, At Sunset, a lush painting of rich blues and magenta created in 1900-1901, sold for $40.5 million, in line with pre-sale estimates but well short of a record for the artist. 

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Christie's also had a Rothko for sale. No. 36 (Black Stripe), which had never appeared at auction, also sold for $40.5 million, on par with predictions. The 1958 work was sold by German collector Frieder Burda, who exhibited it in his museum in Baden-Baden for several years.

Last year, Christie said its global sales of impressionist and modern art were $1.2 billion, an increase of 19 per cent over the previous year.