It was one big party in London this week, celebrating the best art and antiques money can buy.
It started at Sothebys, New Bond street on Monday night, with the preview to the Impressionist and Modern Art sale, (which broke records on Wednesday night) and the Contemporary sale which will take place on 1st July. Flower displays were interwoven into the staircase, beautifully winding their way to the finest champagne and canapés. And then the Art…Think of any of the iconic masters of those eras and they were inevitably there.
Francis Bacon’s ‘Study of the Pope I’, Degas’s bronze sculpture ‘La Petite danseuse de quartorze ans’. Arguably the most important Manet in private collection, ‘Le Bar Aux Folies Bergere’, Klimt’s ‘Bildnis Gertrud Loew (Gertha Felsovanyi)’. The painting remained with the sitter until she was forced to flee the Nazi’s in 1939 leaving all her possessions behind. It is now being restituted to Gertrud’s heirs. Once again a record sale was made for a Klimt painting, selling for £24.8 million.