Christie’s Paris “Art Impressionist et Moderne” Live public auction on June 4th 2020 sent a very important positive message to the art market as the total Revenue (including Buyers' Premium) for the 2020 sale reached over $12 million, the best Total Selling Price for this repeating sale over the past 10 years.

The 2020 Christie’s “Art Impressionist et Moderne” Live public auction achieved a total Hammer Price (HP) of over $10 million versus $7 million in 2019:

While the Bought-in rate (ratio of unsold lots) was the highest since 2015, it was not worst than in 2011 and better than in 2008:

The positive result was clearly linked to the great performance of lot 344 “A Thuin ou La Partie de tennis” by Theo van Rysselberghe, which achieved a Hammer Price of over 4m versus its Low Estimate of 2m euros:

While this single lot, clearly contributed to a large share of the positive result, there is nothing new about this, as the results of 2010 for the same sale show. That year, “Tête” by Amadeo Modigliani achieved a Hammer Price of over 38m versus a Low Estimate of 4m euros.

Overall the total Hammer Price (HP) achieved in 2020 was significantly above the total Low Estimate (LE), which shows that there was appetite from buyers in Paris to acquire impressionist artworks.

It is good to see the art market back in business!

For more information, consult Pi-eX MICRO report on Christie’s Paris Spring Impressionist Modern Sales