Last Tuesday in London, Christie's Impressionist and Modern Art sale and the auction of The Art of the Surreal realised a combined total of €212 million with 35 lots making over €1.2 million. Nature Morte à la Nappe à Carreaux, a famous Cubist still-life painting completed in 1915 by Spanish-born artist Juan Gris, sold for €42 million. This was double the estimate and set a new world-record price for the artist at auction.
Christie's withdrew some 85 lots by Catalan artist Joan Miro, worth an estimated €36 million, after public controversy in Portugal.
The Portuguese state acquired the paintings when Banco Portugues de Negocios was nationalised during the financial crisis, but the planned sale of the bank's art collection sparked a public outcry in the country. Despite a Lisbon court rejecting attempts to block the auction, Christie's halted the sale because of the legal uncertainties.
