Phillips - Auction Block - sold modern and Impressionist art works - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

Art Business News, Jan, 2002 by Vanessa Silberman

* The fall auction season got off to a healthy start at the recent sale of Impressionist and modern art at Phillips in New York, where 67 of the 72 lots found buyers, and $86 million worth of art sold. The top lot of the evening was Egon Schiele's oil on canvas "Haus Mit Trocknender Wasche," which sold for $9.9 million. Meanwhile, Modigliani's "Almaisa" sold for $7.2 million while Kandinsky's "Berglandschaft mit Dorf I" fetched $4.9 million, far exceeding its $3 million estimate. There were a few sighs, however, including Emil Nolde's painting "Teetische," which sold below estimate for $882,500 (est. $1.2 million) and Erich Heckel's "Gruppe in Frein," which sold for $1.6 million (est. $1.8 million to $2.5 million.) All in all, though, spirits were high.

Said Phillips Chairman Simon de Pury, "The energetic bidding from both American and European collectors was especially gratifying considering the extraordinary times in which we are conducting business."