Masterworks by Rothko, Monet, Picasso and Hockney propel Christie’s New York 20th/21st Century Art week to $747 million and counting

Rockefeller Center, New York, updated: 18 November 2025, 9:00pm ET.

On the heels of buoyant sales in Paris and London, Christie’s 20th and 21st Century Art sales week in New York began on Monday 17 November 2025 with The Collection of Robert F. and Patricia G. Ross Weis and the 20th Century Evening Sale. The Impressionist & Modern Works on Paper sale and the Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sale followed on 18 November, bringing the week’s total to $747 million and counting.

The energy in the sale room was palpable throughout the week, with competitive bidding on the phones, in the room and online. Spontaneous applause erupted from shoulder-to-shoulder bidders periodically as many works sailed past their estimates.

Masterworks by Mark Rothko, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and David Hockney each achieved prices in excess of $40 million. The week saw new artist records set for Beauford Delaney and Leonor Fini, while works by John Singer Sargent and František Kupka each set a record for a single work on paper by the artist.

The Collection of Robert F. and Patricia G. Ross Weis

On 17 November auctioneer Adrien Meyer, Global Head of Private Sales and Co-Chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art, took the rostrum to lead a packed saleroom for The Collection of Robert F. and Patricia G. Ross Weis. The collection achieved a total of $218,066,000, selling 89 per cent by lot and 92 per cent by value.

The crown jewel of the Weis collection, Mark Rothko’s No. 31 (Yellow Stripe) (1958), was the top lot of the night, selling for $62,160,000. This part of the evening was led by the stunning Rothko as well as Picasso’s tender 1932 portrait of his beloved muse Marie-Thérèse Walter, which realised $45,485,000. The sale presented one of the most thoughtful private collections of 20th-century art in the United States, previously unseen for decades.

Henri Matisse’s Figure et bouquet (Tête ocre) (1937), fetched $32,260,000, soaring past its high estimate and inspiring a thoroughly positive night for the artist. Piet Mondrian’s Composition with Red and Blue (1939-1941) realised $23,060,000. Max Ernst’s bronze icon of Surrealist sculpture, Le roi jouant avec la reine, conceived in 1944 and cast in 1961, fetched $20,185,000.

20th Century Evening Sale

Directly after the Weis sale on 17 November, auctioneers Adrien Meyer and David Kleiweg de Zwaan, Senior Specialist, Impressionist and Modern Art, led the 20th Century Evening Sale. The auction realised a total of $471,728,000, selling 98 per cent by lot and 100 per cent by value.

The sale opened with John Singer Sargent’s Gondolier’s Siesta (circa 1902-1903). Well-timed to the artist’s recent exhibitions at the Musée d’Orsay and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it went for $7,395,000, more than doubling its high estimate and setting a record for a work on paper by the artist. An oil on canvas by Sargent, Capri (1878), was another triumph, sailing to $11,445,000.

Claude Monet’s masterpiece Nymphéas (1907), achieved $45,485,000 as part of Property from the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art in Japan. The painting derives from the legendary body of work he devoted to waterlilies captured in an extraordinary landscape he created at Giverny. One of David Hockney’s rare double portraits, a masterpiece of pictorial drama from 1968, Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy, also exceeded $40 million, selling for $44,335,000.

Marc Chagall had his moment in the spotlight when the monumental composition Le songe du Roi David (1966) more than doubled its high estimate selling at $26,510,000 after five minutes of lively bids.

Another highlight of the evening was Birth of the Modern: The Arnold and Joan Saltzman Collection led by Fernand Léger’s Composition (Nature morte) (1914), which sold for $19,610,000. Henry Moore’s magnificent Reclining Woman: (Elbow) (1981), achieved $13,860,000. Matisse’s Femme au chapeau fleuri (1923), dating to the artist’s fruitful years in Nice in the 1920s, realised $10,985,000. Additional works from the Saltzman collection will appear in the Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sale on Tuesday 18 November.

Alexander Calder’s monumental Painted Wood (1943), the largest and most significant wooden Constellation mobile ever to come to auction, achieved $20,415,000. Two Calders from Collector/Connoisseur: The Max N. Berry Collections, Acrobats and Untitled, reached $8,005,000 and $3,003,000 respectively, with Acrobats achieving a new record for a wire sculpture by the artist while the latter vaulted over its high estimate. Acrobats’ star turn dovetails with High Wire: Calder’s Circus, the just-opened centennial exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

A major painting from Richard Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park series and Joan Mitchell’s Sunflower V, both from Elaine: The Collection of Elaine Wynn, achieved $17,655,000 and $16,735,000 respectively.

Isamu Noguchi’s granite sculpture Myo (1957-66), which presided over the garden at the Rockefeller family retreat Fieldwood Farm for over 30 years, generated a bidding war between the phones before selling for $7,639,000.

Following the Argentine-Italian Surrealist’s retrospective at the Palazzo Reale in Milan, a new auction record was notched for Leonor Fini when Dans la tour (Autoportrait avec Constantin Jeleński) (1952) garnered $2,515,000.

One of the nation’s finest collections of African American art, the Collection of Faye and Robert Davidson, was led by The Sage Black (1967). Described as an unforgettable portrait of the writer James Baldwin by his dear friend Beauford Delaney, it achieved $1,524,000, a record price for the modernist luminary.

Impressionist and Modern Day Sales

On Tuesday 18 November, Christie’s 20th and 21st Century Art sales week continued with the Impressionist & Modern Works on Paper Sale in the morning, which totalled $10,112,375, selling 82 percent by value and 84 percent by lot.

Edgar Degas’ Danseuses sur la scène (c. 1879) garnered the sale’s highest price, soaring past its high estimate to achieve $1,143,000. The vivid gouache on paper has been in the same family collection for nearly 90 years.

Personnage, oiseau, étoiles (1942) by Joan Miró secured the second highest price, surpassing its high estimate to achieve $914,400. With bursts of saturated colour and cosmic motifs, the work reflects Miró’s enduring fascination with dreamlike imagery and the subconscious.

Four works by Paul Signac flew, with Saint-Tropez (1901) quadrupling its high estimate.

The Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sale achieved $47,431,057, selling 90 per cent by value and 88 per cent by lot. The top lot of the sale was Childe Hassam’s The Flower Seller (1894). Previously exhibited at The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, it sold well above estimate, garnering $2,149,000.

Two top lots originated from the esteemed Saltzman collection: Robert Delaunay’s 1906 portrait of the French painter and writer Jean Metzinger, which sold for $2,027,000, and Miró’s La Chanteuse Mélancolique (1955), which achieved $1,905,000.

Up next

On Wednesday 19 November the 21st Century Evening Sale Featuring Works from the Edlis | Neeson Collection presents masterworks from the past 60 years, including Edlis and Neeson’s unforgettable private collection with outstanding lots by Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons and Ed Ruscha. The week concludes with the Post-War & Contemporary Art Day Sale on Thursday 20 November. Meanwhile, Picasso Ceramics is open for bidding online through Friday 21 November.

Don’t miss Latin American Art Online (3-17 December) and First Open | Post-War & Contemporary Art (2-16 December).