A Christie’s is set to auction on October 23 the largest monochrome by Yves Klein still held in a private American collection.
The piece is estimated to fetch “over 15 million euros,” making it “the most expensive work of the season in Paris,” according to the auction house, as reported by the Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Painted by the French artist in Paris in 1961, it was displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York as part of a long-term loan (2005-2008).
On October 24, Sotheby’s will present “Black Magic,” one of the most famous paintings by Belgian artist René Magritte, estimated to be worth between 5 and 7 million euros, according to the auction house.
“Painted in 1934 and acquired directly from the artist by the family of the current owners in 1935, this is the first version” of the renowned eponymous series, which became legendary in Magritte’s art, stated the auctioneer in a press release.
The painting features one of the most mysterious and prolific themes in his work, the representation of the female body, a blend of flesh, stone, and sky.
A rare portrait of Raymond Radiguet, the young prodigy of “The Devil in the Flesh” by Amadeo Modigliani, painted in 1915 and valued between 5.5 and 7.5 million euros, will also be auctioned by the house on the same day.
Modigliani painted this piece when most French artists were mobilized to the front lines during World War I.
He met the young Raymond Radiguet, then only 12 years old, who was leaving school to join avant-garde artist circles in Montparnasse, and immortalized the future writer.
First revealed to the public in 1925 in the magazine L’Amour de l’Art, the painting has not been presented at auction since and has remained in the same European collection since 1950, highlighted Sotheby’s in a statement.
