Sydell Miller Collection Achieves White-Glove Sale at Sotheby's New York

Sotheby's New York evening sales on November 18, 2024, totaled nearly $216 million, led by the Sydell Miller collection. The 'A Legacy of Beauty: The Collection of Sydell Miller Evening Sale' achieved a white-glove result with all 25 lots sold, followed by the Modern Evening Auction. The top lot was Claude Monet's 'Nymphéas' (1914-1917), estimated at $60 million, which sold for $65.5 million after a 17-minute bidding war, likely to an Asian client. Other highlights included Pablo Picasso's 'La Statuaire' (1925) at $24.8 million, Wassily Kandinsky's 'Weisses Oval' (1921) at $21.61 million, and Henri Matisse's 'Jeune fille en robe rose' (1942) at $9.73 million. Sculptures performed well: Edgar Degas' 'Grande arabesque, troisième temps' (1919) sold for $1.7 million, Joan Miró's 'Femme' (1971) for $2.438 million, and François-Xavier Lalanne's 'Troupeau d'Éléphants dans les Arbres' (2001) for $11.6 million. The Modern Evening Auction totaled about $93 million with a 77% sell-through rate; Alberto Giacometti's 'Buste (Tête tranchante) (Diego)' (1954) sold for $13.25 million, and Leonora Carrington's 'La grande dame (The Cat Woman)' (1951) fetched $11.4 million, bought by Eduardo Costantini. A record was set for Tiffany Studios: the 'Danner Memorial Window' (1913) by Agnes Northrop sold for $12.48 million, surpassing its previous record of $2 million in 2000.