Tuesday 20 June 2006

Modigliani hits £16m

Modigliani - Jeanne Hebuterne (1919)
Yesterday, Sotheby's in London sold Amedeo Modigliani's portrait of his lover Jeanne Hebuterne for £16.3m, double its estimated value. This painting was part of an auction of modern and impressionist art which raised almost £89m. There's big money in them there old-fashioned "modern art" daubs.

1 Comments:

At 22/6/06, Blogger Unknown said...

About 15% of the sale price goes to the auction house, the remainder to the seller of the artwork and a big chunk must go to the taxman. The artist gets nothing, unless he is lucky enough to be alive and to own the artwork being sold. This is rare. Sometimes it's a descendant of the artist who sells the work, but usually it's a private collector.
Basically, it's like stocks and shares and has nothing to do with art and doesn't support living artists in any way. That's why I'd like to see the bottom drop out of the art market and sting the rich philistines who dominate it.

 

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