Amedeo Modigliani’s painting sells for $170.4 million

Chinese billionaire Liu Yiqian has bought Amedeo Modigliani’s painting of a reclining nude woman for US$170.4 million, the second-highest price for an artwork at auction, in a volatile sale at Christie’s in NY.

Now one frisky Chinese art-collector has gotten his mittens on one of the most highly-coveted nudes around: Modigliani’s “Nu couché” (Reclining Nude), a 1918 canvas that depicts a woman, well, reclining nude.

The painting, called “Nu Couché” (Reclining Nude), belongs to a group of ten works of reclining nudes in which the nude model is shown reclining across the same vivid red couch.

Bidding in the packed NY salesroom started at $75m, already more than Modigliani’s auction record of $70.7m, and ticked upwards in $5m increments before an unidentified telephone bidder prevailed at $152m.

Christie’s sold 34 lots for $491 million on Monday evening, including the $95.3 million sale of Roy Lichtenstein’s Nurse. According to the 2015 Bloomberg Billionaires Index, he is worth at least US$1.5 billion.

Mr Liu’s acquisition comes after he purchased a 600-year-old imperial embroidered Tibetan tapestry – also known as a thangka – from a Christie’s auction in Hong Kong for $45 million last November.

He added: “There’s very little discrimination, they just buy the most expensive things. It has not been on the market for 100 years”, said auctioneer and Christie’s Global President Jussi Pylkkanen. It is the second-highest price paid for an artwork at auction.

To win the prized artworks, Christie’s offered the sellers of 17 pieces minimum guaranteed prices regardless of the outcome in the salesroom.

Another highlight was a work in wood by Paul Gauguin, “Therese,” which fetched $30.97 million, setting a new world auction record for a sculpture by the French artist. Largely unknown outside his native China and rarefied art circles, 51-year-old Liu has made a string of purchases for his two museums in China’s commercial hub Shanghai. It’s a portrait of Andrew Parker Bowles, the former husband of Camilla Parker-Bowles, now the wife of Prince Charles. Wang Jianlin, ranked as China’s richest man by Forbes magazine, spent $20.4 million on a Monet painting in May, days after media entrepreneur Wang Zhongjun spent $29.9 million on a Picasso. It was on view at the 2012 retrospective of the artist at the National Portrait Gallery in London and portrays the career soldier wearing his sumptuous army brigadier uniform.

The NY Times suggests the more conventional Christie’s sale reflects investor concern over a perceived bubble in the contemporary art market.