The buyer, whose identity remains undisclosed, placed a bid of £2.8 million (€3.2 million), with the final purchase cost amounting to £3,466,000 (€3,987,000).
In 2023, a different diptych from the same ‘Dancing Ostriches’ series (1995) was sold for €3.5 million by the British auction house Christie’s, setting a record for a piece by the Portuguese artist at that time.
The artwork auctioned today in an event dedicated to 20th and 21st-century artists was estimated to fetch between £3 million and £5 million (€3.5 million and €5.8 million).
The series, comprising three panels featuring dancers in black dresses with pink pointe shoes, is part of a thematic cycle inspired by Disney’s film ‘Fantasia.’
Documentation indicates that this piece has been requested for loan to the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway, in 2026.
Inspired by the work of the American filmmaker Walt Disney, the ‘Dancing Ostriches’ series was previously part of the Saatchi Collection, created for the Hayward Gallery’s ‘Spellbound: Art and Film’ exhibition in 1996, and has been frequently displayed over the past three decades.
It has been shown notably at Tate Liverpool (1997) in the UK, the Reina Sofia Museum (2007-08) in Madrid, Spain, the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris, France (2018-19), and the Kestner Gesellschaft in Hanover, Germany (2022-23).
In Portugal, it has been exhibited at the Centro Cultural de Belém and the Casa das Histórias Paula Rego.
Born in Lisbon, Paula Rego moved to the British capital at the age of 17 to study at the Slade School of Fine Art, where she established her residence and gained acclaim for her unique work, inspired by literature and characterized by her advocacy for women’s rights over several decades.
Paula Rego passed away on June 8, 2022, leaving behind a body of work represented in many of the world’s most important public and private collections.
