PARIS — Under the watchful eye of auctioneer François de Ricqlès, Christie's totaled €12.9 million ($16.5 million) during two sales in Paris this week: The Moch collection and another, unnamed private collection were auctioned off on Tuesday, while Wednesday saw the auction house's Impressionist and Modern sale. Works by Giacometti, Miró, and Renoir were among the top lots.
On Wednesday, the Impressionist and Modern sale totaled €9.4 million ($12.1 million; all prices include buyer's premium)."Pilastre," a lamppost by Alberto Giacometti, was made in 1936 but had never before been sold at auction. A European collector purchased the piece for €1.4 million ($1.8 million), after it zoomed past its €300,000-500,000 ($383,000-638,000) estimate. Joan Miró's 1969 work "Le Lézard aux Plumes d'Or" ("Lizard with Gold Feathers") was the object of a heated battle between a Japanese collector and an American collector, with the latter winning the piece over the telephone for €1.05 million ($1.3 million). The work was consigned to auction by the iconic French actor Gérard Depardieu.
Headlined by the Fernand and Jeanne Moch collection, which has been shown in many museums over the years, Tuesday's sale achieved €3.5 million ($4.4 million). The top lot was a charming 1895 work on paper in red chalk and charcoal by Renoir. Titled "Gabrielle et Jean," it depicts his son Jean Renoir, who would grown up to become a renowed filmmaker, with his nanny. Estimated at €200,000-300,000 ($256,000-384,000), it was bought by an Asian collector for €481,000 ($615,758). Another Renoir, "Femme Dans un Paysage à Cagnes" ("Woman in a Landscape in Cagnes"), bathed in the light of southern France where the painter resided for his health starting in 1903, went for €457,000 ($585,034).
Other jewels of the Moch collection included two Pointillist-style works by Camille Pissarro. "Paysanne Attaching son Soulier" ("Peasant Woman Putting on Her Shoe") sold for €433,000 ($554,310) to an American collector and "La Gardeuse d'Oies" ("The Goose Keeper"), a masterpiece on silk that dates to 1888, fetched €445,000 ($569,672). Marc Chagall's 1926 work "Le Ruisseau" ("The Stream") sold for €205,000 ($262,433), and a Bonnard landscape, "Paysage du Cannet," was acquired by the Bonnard Museum in a preemptive sale for €187,000 ($239,390). An oil painting by Matisse, "Paysage de Corse," which was painted in 1898 during his honeymoon in Corsica, missed the mark on its €180,000-250,000 ($230,000-320,000) estimate and went for €121,000 ($154,900).
Fernand Moch was an important textile merchant in the 1920s and helped to revive the textile industry in Reims after the Second World War. The Moch collection includes other iconic works that were not sold at auction, such as Claude Monet's "Rouen Cathedral" and "Charing Cross Bridge," as well as paintings by Paul Gauguin and major works by Vincent van Gogh, including the 1889 painting "Heure de Midi" ("Noon").
A version of this article appears on ARTINFO France.