Record Sales at Christie's New York: Monet, Kandinsky, de Kooning

Christie's New York achieved record-breaking sales in November 2016, with Impressionist, modern, postwar, and contemporary art auctions totaling over $527 million. On November 16, the Impressionist and modern art sale reached nearly $250 million, exceeding the $200 million low estimate. Claude Monet's "Meule" (1891) sold for $81.4 million, a new record for the artist, against a $35 million estimate. Wassily Kandinsky's "Rigide et courbe" (1934) fetched $23.2 million, slightly surpassing his previous record of $23 million set in 2012. Pablo Picasso's "Buste de Femme (Dora Maar)" (1938) sold for $22.6 million. The previous evening, the postwar and contemporary art sale totaled $277 million against a $216 million estimate. Willem de Kooning's "Untitled XXV" (1977) achieved $66.3 million, more than doubling his prior record of $32 million from 2013. Other personal records included Jean Dubuffet's "Les Grandes Artères" (1961) at $24.8 million, John Currin's "Nice 'n Easy" (1999) at $12 million, Jonathan Horowitz's "Obama '08" (2008) at $223,500, and Italian artist Giuseppe Gallo's "Untitled" (2011) at $367,500, up from $28,000.