In just eight minutes, under the fierce competition of six bidders, the masterpiece "Meules" from Impressionism master Monet finally closed at a sky high price of 110.7 million US dollars (about 760 million yuan).
At this Tuesday's auction, the final sale price of Haystack almost doubled from Sotheby's previous estimate of $55 million. This masterpiece not only became the highest auction price among Impressionism paintings, but also ranked ninth in the history of the international auction house.
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BERTHA POTTER PALMER, the first collector of this auction work.
The "Haystack" series is mainly composed of paintings by Monet from 1890 to 1891, with Haystacks as the main subject. The series is famous for depicting the same theme "Haystack" from different angles in different environments, seasons, and light and shadow conditions.
There are a total of 25 works in the entire series, including the paintings at this auction. Only 8 of them are in the hands of private collectors, while the rest are collected by globally renowned museums.
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Although the Haystack series enjoys high reputation, it rarely appears in the auction market; However, once it appears, it will definitely attract the attention of buyers.
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The last time this series of works appeared at an auction house was in 2016, when it was sold for $81.4 million, almost doubling the auction house's estimated $45 million. For the super rich, top art has always been one of the areas for collection and investment. The current booming art auction market also proves the enthusiasm of buyers.
Barron Weekly cited a report from Citibank stating that in 2018, the art market had reached a new peak, not only in auction houses but also in the private sector.
Data shows that in 2018, Christie's art auctions had a total value of $7 billion, the highest year in its history; The total value of Sotheby's is 6.4 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 16%; The Phillips auction house also achieved its best record ever with $916 million.
Betsy Bickarz from Citibank stated that both the high priced collections and relatively low-priced works have seen a surge of new buyers from around the world, including Singapore, Hong Kong, and Dubai.
The interface once pointed out that art collection is seen as an asset allocation, which is why it has attracted a group of speculators. However, the false high price in the art market also reflects the existence of foam, among which contemporary art is the field that can best reflect the foam.
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