Offbeat | Manet, Chagall at NYC art auction

French Impressionist Edouard Manet’s “Spring”

A celebrated portrait of a Parisian actress by Edouard Manet was slated for the auction block at Christie’s during the second day of a major fall sale of big-ticket impressionist and modern art.
“Spring” is one of the highlights at Christie’s yesterday. It was first presented at the 1882 Paris Salon. It’s been in the same American collection for over a century and has been on loan at the National Gallery of Art for the last two decades.
Manet painted actress Jeanne Demarsy in a floral dress and bonnet in 1881 as an allegory of spring. It could fetch up to USD35 million.
Christie’s also is featuring property of Academy Award-winning actress Joan Fontaine, including a 1935 painting by Marc Chagall, “Vase of Flowers in the Window,” which could fetch up to $600,000 today.
The sale kicked off Tuesday at Sotheby’s with “Chariot,” a rare 1951 bronze sculpture by Alberto Giacometti fetching $101 million. The price almost broke the $104.3 million record for the Swiss artist.
Also on Tuesday, a rare piece of artwork painted by Vincent van Gogh weeks before his death sold for $61.8 million. The 1890 painting, “Still Life, Vase With Daisies and Poppies,” had been expected to fetch between $30 million and $50 million.
The auction record for a van Gogh is $82.5 million. Another important sculpture sold at Sotheby’s was Amedeo Modigliani’s “Tete.” It fetched $70.7 million, just topping the previous auction record for the artist at $69 million.