Top Sotheby’s Auction Sales of 2023
PABLO PICASSO
Femme à la Montre Pablo Picasso’s 1932 painting of his lover Marie-Thérèse Walter, Femme à la montre, sold for US$139.4 million, and was the prized lot of the November auction season. It was part of an evening sale of blue-chip modern and contemporary art from the estate of Emily Fisher Landau.
GUSTAV KLIMT
Dame mit Fächer (Lady with a Fan) This masterpiece—the last portrait created by the iconic Viennese painter—sold in London in June 2023 for around US$108 million, becoming the most valuable work of art ever sold at auction in Europe.
Insel im Attersee Created between 1901 and 1902, this evocative landscape painting depicting Klimt’s bucolic summers at Attersee sold in May 2023 for US$53.2 million as part of Sotheby’s Modern Evening in New York.
WASSILY KANDINSKY
Murnau mit Kirche II This brightly colored landscape of the Bavarian village of Murnau sold for around US$45 million in London in March 2023, setting a record for the Russian artist. Completed in 1910, the work was stolen by the Nazis and spent decades in a Dutch museum.
CODEX SASSOON
In May 2023, the oldest, most complete Hebrew Bible sold in New York for US$38.1 million—a new record for the most expensive manuscript ever sold at auction. Dating to the late ninth century or early 10th century, it will appear on public display at the ANU-Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv.
FANCY VIVID PURPLISH-PINK DIAMOND
This oval brilliant-cut purplish-pink diamond weighing 14.83 carats sold for US$34.8 million in May 2023 as part of Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels auction in Geneva, setting an auction record for a fancy purplish-pink diamond and a new price-per-carat record for the color grade. The internally flawless Russian gem was named “The Spirit of the Rose,” after a famous ballet performed by the Ballets Russes.
ESTRELA DE FURA: 55.22
This gem, the largest gem-quality ruby ever brought to auction, weighing in at 55.22 carats, sold for US$34.8 million in June 2023 as part of Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels sale in New York. It is now considered the world’s most valuable colored gemstone.
LOUISE BOURGEOIS
Spider Setting a new auction record for a sculpture by a woman artist, this 10-foot-tall bronze spider sculpture sold for US$32.8 million in May 2023 in New York. The towering 1996 work by this French-American artist, who only began creating her spider sculptures in her 80s, is over 18 feet across and is only one of only four spider works to ever appear at auction.
ZHANG DAQIAN
Pink Lotuses on Gold Screen Created in 1973, this splashed-ink and color on gold paper two-panel masterpiece sold for US$32.1 million in April 2023 in Hong Kong on the occasion of Sotheby’s 50th anniversary in Asia. Compared by many to Monet’s Waterlilies, it is one of the most famous works by one of the most prestigious 20th-century Chinese painters.
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