LONDON — A Pablo Picasso portrait fetched £8.1 million ($12.9 million), twice the pre-sale top estimate, at an auction in London on Tuesday as telephone bidding from Russian buyers boosted the market for 20th-century European art.
Christie’s International raised £76.8 million as it sold 69 of 85 lots of Impressionist, modern and Surrealist works. Last year?€™s equivalent event raised £63.4 million from 47 works as buyers and sellers held back in the financial crisis.
While auction prices halved last year for some contemporary artists, values of decorative Impressionist and modern works by famous names have remained more resilient, supported by collectors from emerging markets, dealers said.
“They want flashy, colorful pictures by the big names,” Thomas Seydoux, Christie?€™s international head of Impressionist and modern art, said in an interview. ?€?We were surprised by the amount of bidding from Russian and former Eastern Bloc buyers.?€?
At least six Christie?€™s staff members ?€” including Matthew Stephenson, managing director of Christie?€™s Russia, and Sandra Nedvetskaia, of the company?€™s London-based Russian art department ?€” took telephone bids on Picasso?€™s 1963 painting ?€?Tete de Femme (Jacqueline).?€?
The head-and-shoulders portrait of the artist?€™s second wife, Jacqueline Roque, had been estimated at £3 million to £4 million.
Twenty-one lots sold for more than £1 million with competition dominated by telephone bidders.
Nedvetskaia?€™s telephone bidder paid an artist?€™s record of £6.4 million for the Natalia Goncharova canvas ?€?Espagnole.?€? Influenced by the designs that the artist executed for Sergei Diaghilev?€™s ?€?Ballets Russes,?€? the Cubo-Futurist canvas dating from about 1916 had a low estimate of £4 million and was an obvious target for Russian buyers.
?€?This sale was good news,?€? James Roundell, a London-based dealer and agent, said in an interview. ?€?It was a very solid performance. People are coming back into the market.?€?
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