Christie's New York May Sales Total $489 Million, Mondrian Leads at $47.6M
On May 12, 2025, Christie's kicked off the May auction season at Rockefeller Center in New York, featuring two significant events: the Leonard & Louise Riggio collection and the 20th Century Evening Sale. Together, they generated $489 million, exceeding last year's total of $413 million. The Riggio collection alone brought in $272 million, highlighted by Piet Mondrian's 'Composition With Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue' (1922), which sold for $47.56 million, while René Magritte's 'L'Empire des lumières' (1949) reached approximately $35 million. The 20th Century Evening Sale contributed $217 million, with Claude Monet's 'Peupliers au bord de l'Epte, crépuscule' (1891) selling for $42.96 million. Surrealists Remedios Varo and Dorothea Tanning achieved record sales of $6.22 million and $2.35 million, respectively.
Key facts
- Christie's New York May sales on May 12, 2025, totaled $489 million.
- The Riggio collection sale realized $272 million, with all 38 lots sold except one withdrawn and one passed.
- Piet Mondrian's 'Composition With Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue' sold for $47.56 million.
- René Magritte's 'L'Empire des lumières' sold for about $35 million.
- Pablo Picasso's portrait of Lee Miller sold for $28.01 million.
- Claude Monet's 'Peupliers au bord de l'Epte, crépuscule' set a record for his Poplars series at $42.96 million.
- Andy Warhol's 'Big Electric Chair' was withdrawn from the 20th Century Evening Sale.
- Remedios Varo and Dorothea Tanning set new auction records.
Entities
Artists
- Piet Mondrian
- René Magritte
- Pablo Picasso
- Lee Miller
- Alberto Giacometti
- Barbara Hepworth
- Claude Monet
- Mark Rothko
- Andy Warhol
- Remedios Varo
- Dorothea Tanning
- Gerhard Richter
- Gino Severini
- Lucio Fontana
- Julio Gonzalez
Institutions
- Christie's
- Barnes & Noble
- Sotheby's
- Phillips
Locations
- New York
- United States
- Rockefeller Center
- London
- United Kingdom