The Guennol Lioness

Press Release Paris
Paris | 33 (0)1 53 05 53 66 | Sophie Dufresne | [email protected]
Impressionist & Modern Art
Sale totals €8.15 million
$11.3 million
Average Price per lot: €145,500 - $202,000
Femme avec Deux Fillettes by Georges Seurat
€1,520,750 - $2,107,805
World Record Prices for
a work by Léon Spilliaert
Grand Flacon, Petite Bouteille
€288,750 - $400,216
a sculpture by Man Ray
Vénus Restaurée
€360,750 - $500,010
Paris, 28 May 2009 - The sale of Impressionist & Modern Art (total estimate €6.7-9.7m)
yielded €8.15 million ($11.3 million).
Samuel Valette, Director of the Impressionist & Modern Art Department, said: "The highly
selective way in which we assembled the sale worked really well, with the 71 lots offered bringing
over €8m. Paris is now established as the world's leading centre for Surrealism, which also helps
other artists – like Spilliaert and Toyen on this occasion – to obtain widespread international
recognition. To see an American collector propel Spilliaert to a new record price was tremendously
satisfying."
Another Seurat Triumph at Sotheby’s France
After the record €5m obtained at Sotheby’s Paris last December for Seurat's extraordinary
drawing Au Divan Japonais, another Seurat drawing, Femme avec Deux Fillettes, achieved
€1,520,750 ($2,107,805) – the highest price at Sotheby’s in Paris this year. The drawing came from
a prestigious Paris collection, and was acquired by a private European collector.
Agrément N° 2001 – 002 du 25 octobre 2001
Vente dirigée par Cécile Verdier
Success for Pablo Picasso & Kees van Dongen
Along with the Seurat drawing, the sale's most eagerly awaited works were Pablo Picasso's 1965
Nu Allongé et Tête d'Homme de Profil and Kees van Dongen's Dimanche à la Plage (est.
€600,000-800,000 apiece). The Picasso sold to a private American collector for €648,750
($899,187), while the striking Van Dongen composition fetched the sale's second highest price of
€720,750 ($998,981).
Surrealism
The impressive Surrealism section generated several remarkable prices, including €360,750
($500,010) for Man Ray's Vénus Restaurée – a record for a Man Ray sculpture.
Femme au Ballon, a superb Surrealist composition painted by Pablo Picasso in Dinard (Brittany) in
1929, and depicting his muse at the time Marie-Thérèse Walter on the beach, earned
€468,750 ($649,702).
Un Jour Triste by the Czech artist Toyen sold for €336,750 ($466,750), over six times its low
estimate, while Jean Arp's Fleur-Marteau, Formes Terrestres made €336,750 ($466,750) (est.
€180,000-250,000).
Two masterpieces by Léon Spilliaert
The sublime still life Grand Flacon, Petite Bouteille (1909), probably the finest work by Léon
Spilliaert ever seen at auction, fittingly posted a record price for the artist of €288,750
($400,216). His Femme de Pêcheur sur un Ponton (1909) fetched €120,750 ($167,363).
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