Masterworks by Mondrian, Monet, Rothko and Basquiat power Christie’s NY 20th and 21st Century Art week to $693 million

Rockefeller Center, New York, updated: 15 May 2025, 8:00 PM ET.

From 12-15 May 2025 Christie’s 20th and 21st Century Art sales in New York achieved a grand total of $693 million across the week’s six sales, 123 per cent of low estimate.

A rare 1922 Mondrian, Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue, was the week’s top lot, selling for $47,560,000. Claude Monet’s Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, crépuscule (1891) also exceeded $40 million, selling for $42,960,000, and establishing a record for the series.

Miss January (1997) by Marlene Dumas achieved the highest price ever paid for a work by a living female artist. New artist records were set for Dorothea Tanning, Remedios Varo, Louis Fratino, Simone Leigh and Emma McIntyre as well as a record for a work on paper by Franz von Stuck.

Leonard & Louise Riggio: Collected Works

Auctioneer Adrien Meyer, Global Head of Private Sales and Co-Chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art, took the rostrum on 12 May to lead Leonard & Louise Riggio: Collected Works. The collection of the Barnes & Noble founder and his wife achieved a total of $272 million selling 97 per cent by lot and 97 per cent by value.

Mondrian’s Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue (1922) achieved the sale’s — and the night’s — highest price at $47,560,000, selling to applause.

Leonard and Louise Riggio’s collecting was driven by a lifelong pursuit of knowledge and spirit of discovery, reflected in two astonishing masterworks by René Magritte: L’empire des lumières (1949) and Les droits de l’homme (1947-1948), which fetched $34,910,000 and $15,935,000 respectively.

Picasso’s Femme à la coiffe d’Arlésienne sur fond vert (Lee Miller), painted in 1937 while the Spanish artist was holidaying with a circle of Surrealist creatives in Mougins, garnered $28,010,000, after lively bidding on the phone and in the room. One of the earliest sculptures of Giacometti’s groundbreaking Femme de Venise series, Femme de Venise I realised $17,660,000, and one of his important multi-figure compositions conceived in 1950 went for $10,760,000.

20th Century Evening Sale

Directly after the Riggio sale on 12 May, auctioneers Meyer and David Kleiweg de Zwaan, Senior Specialist, Impressionist and Modern Art, led the 20th Century Evening Sale. The auction realised a total of $217 million, selling 100 per cent by lot and 100 per cent by value, and 40% of lots selling over their high estimate.

The sale opened with a grouping from Anne and Sid Bass’s famous Fort Worth residence designed by Paul Rudolph, offered as part of Art from the Bass House. In total, Art from the Bass House achieved $74.1 million across the sales. The jewel of the Bass collection, Mark Rothko’s No. 4 (Two Dominants) [Orange, Plum, Black] (1950-1951) reached $37,785,000 after enthusiastic bidding on the telephones and in the room. The luminous painting had pride of place in the music room of the Bass house.

The top lot of the 20th Century Evening Sale was Monet’s Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, crépuscule (1891), selling for $42,960,000 following nearly five minutes of lively bidding between phones. The price set a new auction record for the Poplars series, breaking the previous one set by Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, automne (1891) from the Collection of Anne H. Bass at Christie’s in 2022. Monet’s famed Poplars hail from a pivotal moment in the artist’s career when he produced some of his most enduring Grainstacks and Rouen Cathedral paintings, as well as his first epic Water Lilies. This particular example was recently exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Also in the 20th Century Evening Sale, belonging to an important group of paintings that established Gerhard Richter’s landscapes as a fundamental part of his oeuvre, Korsika (Schiff) (1968) soared past its high estimate to achieve $15,245,000 after a seven-minute bidding war between phones.

It was a great night for women Surrealists. Selling for $2,349,000, Endgame (1944) set a new world record for Dorothea Tanning, as did the ethereal Revelación (also titled El relojero) (1955) for Remedios Varo, which achieved $6,221,000.

21st Century Evening Sale

On Wednesday 14 May, auctioneer Yü-Ge Wang, Associate Director and Senior Client Advisor, steered the 21st Century Evening Sale. Led by Jean-Michel Basquiat’s exquisite 1982 triptych Baby Boom, the sale totalled $96.5 million, selling 92 per cent by lot and 97 per cent by value, with 44% of lots selling over their high estimate. Four artists records were set on the night by Louis Fratino, Simone Leigh, Emma McIntyre and Marlene Dumas.

For Art’s Sake: Selected Works by Tiqui Atencio & Ago Demirdjian opened the sale with 15 lots chosen by one of the most respected collectors and authors in the contemporary art world. Lot 1, Jarvis and Liam Smoking (1997) by the revered American portraitist Elizabeth Peyton, sold for $1,623,000. Highlights of the grouping were two paintings from 1999, Ed Ruscha’s Blast Curtain and Cecily Brown’s Bedtime Story, which sold for $5,616,000 and $6,221,000 respectively. Additional works selected by Tiqui Atencio and Ago Demirdjian will be offered in the Design sale in Paris on 21 May, with more to follow this fall.

Baby Boom, a monumental stretcher bar painting from what is widely considered the most significant year of Basquiat’s career, realised the highest price of the night, selling for $23,410,000. Exhibited at his breakthrough 1982 Fun Gallery show, the triptych depicting the artist and his parents extends the tradition of portraiture dating back to the Renaissance.

The nine-foot-tall Miss January (1997) set a new world record price for a work of art by a living female artist: the provocative oil painting by Marlene Dumas sold for $13,635,000.

The Dumas and the Brown led a night of strong results for women artists. After a seven-minute bidding war, Simone Leigh’s totemic sculpture Sentinel IV (2020) broke a record for the artist when it sold for $5,737,000. Louise Bourgeois’ tactile hand-stitched head Untitled (2000) and Roni Horn’s Opposite of White, v.2 (2007) both exceeded their high estimates with prices over $1 million, while paintings by Danielle McKinney and Emma McIntyre more than doubled theirs. McIntyre’s Up bubbles her amorous breath (2021) ended the night on a note of excitement when it set a record price for the artist, fetching $201,600.

Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale

On Thursday 14 May the Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale achieved a total of $66.5 million, with 50% of lots selling over their high estimate.

A captivating painting by Mark Tansey achieved the highest price of the auction, selling for $3,196,000 — six times its high estimate. Tansey’s The Enunciation (1992) — for which today’s top lot is a study — resides in the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Joan Mitchell’s Petit Matin (1982) also surpassed $3 million, while a monumental Helen Frankenthaler painting and a massive jasper sculpture by Isamu Noguchi both fetched prices above $2 million.

Works by Calder flew: A red mobile realised $1,804,500; his sculpture Black Thing sold for $1,683,500, and a pair of brass jewellery works from the Collection of Ellin and Bernhard Blumenthal exceeded their high estimates to achieve six-figure prices.

Impressionist and Modern Day Sales

The Impressionist and Modern Works on Paper sale and the Impressionist and Modern Art Day Sale on Tuesday 14 May achieved a combined total of $41.1 million.

The Impressionist and Modern Works on Paper sale totalled $9.8 million selling 87 per cent by lot and 93 per cent by value, with 60% of lots selling over their high estimate.

René Magritte’s Sans titre (1961) achieved the highest price of the sale, when it surpassed its high estimate to sell for $1,134,000. The artist’s beloved papiers collés often featured fragments of sheet music cut into surreal forms — this example incorporates pages from Carl Maria von Weber’s romantic aria Ozean, du Ungeheuer! (Ocean, thou mighty monster!).

Les trois grâces by Salvador Dalí followed close behind, realising $1,008,000. The alluring composition finds the timeless motif of the three graces rendered in Dalí’s modern vernacular. Amongst the auction’s strong performers, works by Leonora Carrington, Henri Matisse and Émile Bernard doubled, quadrupled and quintupled their respective high estimates.

Tuesday afternoon, the Impressionist and Modern Art Day Sale achieved $31.3 million and selling 82 per cent by lot and 90 per cent by value, with 61% of lots selling over their high estimate.

The top lot of the afternoon was Monet’s Vétheuil, which sold for $3,196,000. The painting is one of the artist’s distinctive canvases depicting the picturesque village of Vétheuil from across the Seine in Lavacourt circa 1901-1902.

Auguste Rodin’s Adam, taille originale dit aussi “Grand modèle” realised $2,772,500, more than double the high estimate. The striking and angular bronze depicts the Biblical figure in the process of coming into being, his contorted stance taking inspiration from the work of Michelangelo.

Camille Pissarro’s Matin, soleil d'automne à Eragny (1900) and Picasso’s Le Peintre (Tête) (1964) garnered $2,046,500 and $1,562,500 respectively. Works by Matisse, Raoul Dufy, Leonora Carrington and Henry Moore each achieved prices over $1 million.