The art market got back on track in a modest way with the first of a series of sales of Impressionist and modern art that saw a portrait by Amedeo Modigliani sell for $5.94 million.
"Portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne," painted in 1919 in Modigliani's typically elongated style, had been estimated to bring $4 million to $6 million at the sale at Sotheby's auction gallery. The price paid by an unidentified private collector was right on the high estimate.Other top prices in the sale were $3 million for Joan Miro's 1945 biomorphic abstraction, "Woman in the Night," slightly below Sotheby's low pre-sale evaluation, and $2 million for Vincent Van Gogh's 1888 ink sketch, "Wheat Field With Sheaves," slightly above its low evaluation.
Alexander Apsis, director of Sotheby's Impressionist department, noted that the sale of 47 lots, 17 of which failed to find buyers, had been difficult to put together at a time when most prospective sellers were waiting for the market to recover from a recession that has lasted five years.