Nahmad Family Sells Kandinsky for £13.5M at Christie's London

Christie's London Impressionist and Modern Art evening sale on June 18, 2013, achieved £64 million ($100 million) with 7 of 44 lots unsold. The top lot was Wassily Kandinsky's 'Studie zu Improvisation 3', sold for £13.5 million by the Nahmad family, who had purchased it in 2008 for $16 million. This price approached Kandinsky's record of $23 million set in 2012 for 'Studie für Improvisation 8'. Amedeo Modigliani's 'Paul Guillaume' fetched £6.7 million, last auctioned in 2006 for $4.8 million. Four Picasso works entered the top ten, including 'Femme assise dans un fauteuil' (1960) at £6.1 million and 'Tête d'homme' (1964) at £2.9 million. Paul Signac's 'Sainte-Anne (St. Tropez)' sold for £3.5 million, formerly owned by Gustave Fayet. Sculpture performed strongly: Auguste Rodin's 'Eve' achieved £2.8 million, and Alberto Giacometti's 'Femme debout' (1956) bronze sold for £2.6 million. Joan Miró's 'La tige de la fleur rouge pousse vers la lune' failed to sell, stopping below its £5 million estimate. All 172 Picasso ceramics lots sold, totaling £2.8 million, with the top lot 'Visage Tourmenté', a rare 22-carat gold plate created with François Hugo, selling for £193,000 against an estimate of £100,000-150,000. Eighteen lots exceeded £1 million, and twenty-two surpassed $1 million. Records were set for Eugène Boudin and a painting by Constantin Brancusi.