Modigliani nude sells for $63.9 million at Sotheby’s London

Amedeo Modigliani’s Nu assis au collier sold for $63.9 million at Sotheby’s London, the highest price ever achieved for a work by the artist at auction in Europe. The oil on canvas, painted in 1917-18 and measuring 91.5 by 59.7 cm, came from the Joe Lewis collection and drew a fast bidding contest that began at £38 million, or about $50 million.

The result landed above Sotheby’s expectation of at least £45 million, or about $60 million. Lewis had bought the painting at Christie’s in 1995 for $12.4 million, and the work had not appeared at auction in more than three decades. Sotheby’s had also requested the painting for Modigliani Nord Sud at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, scheduled for July 8 to September 3, 2028.

The sale helped drive the broader Joe Lewis collection to £296.3 million, or $392.6 million, the highest total ever for a single-owner collection sold in Europe. The evening’s combined total across the Lewis sale and a later modern and contemporary session reached £393.4 million, or $520.7 million, also a Europe record. Other major prices included Gustav Klimt’s Bildnis Gertrud Loew at $47.9 million and Lucian Freud’s Sleeping by the Lion Carpet at $38.8 million.

In 1917, nude paintings displayed in a Paris gallery window caused such outrage that police intervened and closed the exhibition almost immediately. That history, paired with the rarity of works from the artist’s 1917-18 nude series, helped make Nu assis au collier one of the evening’s defining lots.

The sale did not break Modigliani’s all-time auction record, which remains $170.4 million for Nu couché, sold at Christie’s New York in 2015.