ART MARKET WATCH
by Stewart Waltzer



Christie’s evening sale of Impressionist and modern art on Nov. 8, 2006, sold 78 of the 84 lots offered, or 93 percent, for a total of $491,472,000, including the auction-house premium (20 percent on the first $200,000, and 12 percent on the rest). The total was the highest for any art auction, ever (though this sale admittedly had 20 more lots than a typical evening sale). The sale set nine new auction records, including for Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Paul Gauguin. Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II sold for $87,936,000 (with premium), the third highest price for a painting at auction, and altogether, the four restituted Klimt paintings from the Bloch-Bauer family sold for $192,704,000 (with premium). The prices given in the text here are at the hammer.

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