Christie's auctioned off Amedeo Modigliani's 1917 "Nu couché" (Reclining Nude) at record value of $170.4 million, with commission, on Monday night. It is only the tenth painting to have a nine-figure value and holds the record for the second-highest price paid for a painting. The painting was auctioned off by the seller, Laura Mattioli Rossi, daughter of Gianni Mattioli, a famed Italian art collector.
Amedeo Modigliani's Nu couché sold for $170,405,000, a #WorldAuctionRecord for the artist. pic.twitter.com/pUCin3Q63z
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) November 10, 2015
Among six people, it was China's Liu Yiqian, a former taxi driver turned billionaire, who was able to purchase the Modigliani painting. Liu and his wife, Wang Wei, are known art collectors in China and they are planning to include their recently purchased Modigliani in their private museums in Shanghai, according to The New York Times. The "Nu couché" was the highlight of the "Artist's Muse" sale, which included a total of 34 artworks. Other sold works include a $95.4 million Roy Lichtenstein "Nurse" pop art painting and "ThérEese," a Gauguin sculpture sold for $31 million.
The Artist’s Muse sale is about to begin...follow along for live updates. pic.twitter.com/Q4rRewjxNs — Christie's (@ChristiesInc) November 9, 2015
Paul Gauguin's Thérèse sells for $30,965,000 a #worldauctionrecord for a sculpture by the artist. pic.twitter.com/NuEf8SG0Ex — Christie's (@ChristiesInc) November 10, 2015
Despite selling most of the paintings, about 30 percent were not sold. One of the unsold was "Naked Portrait on a Red Sofa" by Lucian Freud. Despite not selling all the art, Christie's was still able to bring in a total of $494.4 million.
Christie's global president, Jussi Pylkkanen, mentioned that those paintings that were not sold are just the chances taken by "pushing the envelope," according to CNBC.
The auction took over the previous record of a Modigliani sculpture selling for $70.7 million, which was auctioned in November 2014 by Sotheby's, according to the New York Post. It also comes in second only to "Les femmes d'Alger" (Women of Algiers) by Picasso, which was also sold by Christie's in May for $179 million.
