Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973), Femme au chignon dans un fauteuil. Signed Picasso (upper right); dated 1.11.48 on the reverse. Oil on canvas, 36 1/4 by 28 3/4 in., 92 by 73 cm. Painted in 1948. Estimate 12,000,000 — 18,000,000 USD. Lot sold 29,930,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby’s May sales of Impressionist & Modern Art concluded yesterday in New York with a strong total of $420.4 million, raising the company’s 2015 sales in this category to $739.4 million to-date. 

Pablo Picasso’s Femme au chignon dans un fauteuil, which had remained in the Goldwyn family collection since it was acquired by Hollywood legend Samuel Goldwyn Sr. in 1956, was purchased for $29.9m in the Evening Sale by another major figure in the film industry: Wang Zhongjun, Chairman and co-founder of entertainment giant Huayi Brothers Media Group. 

Wang Zhongjun said: “I first fell in love with the painting and then I fell in love with its story. The Goldwyn family is legendary in our industry and in this one work, I can see not only Pablo Picasso’s genius, but also Samuel Goldwyn Sr.’s creative vision.” 

Three of the Evening Sale’s top five lots were purchased by Asian private collectors, including Vincent van Gogh’s L'Allée des Alyscamps which led the auction with $66.3 million (estimate in excess of $40 million). In total, collectors from Asia competed for more than 30% of the lots on offer last night, with winning bids accounting for more than 30% of the sale’s $368.3 million result.

The Day Sale on 6 May achieved $52.1 million, with nine works selling for more than $1 million. The auction continued Sotheby’s ‘Monet Moment’, with two paintings achieving among the highest prices of the day: a Nymphéas circa 1917-19 led the sale and fetched $2.3 million (left, estimate $1/1.5 million), while Le Golf Juan from 1888 brought $1.3 million (estimate $600/800,000). In two days, Sotheby’s has sold seven works by the artist, for an impressive sum of $119 million. 

The Evening Sale on 5 May achieved the second-highest result in Company history for any auction of Impressionist & Modern Art, continuing a string of successes for Sotheby’s in the category: the November 2014 sale in New York totaled $422.1 million – the highest result for any auction in Company history – and the February 2015 auction in London achieved $280.2 million – the highest result for any auction held in London, by any auction house.