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Sotheby’s major Hong Kong sales will also take place on Wednesday the 27th. The Modern Evening Auction, beginning at 6 am EDT, has already drawn press attention with all eyes on Picasso’s red portrait of Dora Maar.

Sotheby’s has been sending art advisors around the world an image of Francis Bacon’s Study for Red Pope, 1962, second version 1971 with an estimate around $40 million.

In recent years, value in the Picasso market has migrated toward a distinct period in the master’s production surrounding his affair with Marie-Thérèse Walter, the young woman who became his obsession for the better part of a decade.

Works from Philip Guston’s late period have been making rapid progress on the masterpiece market for several years now. Six of the artist’s top ten prices come from works made after he abandoned Abstract Expressionism in favor of the controversial—and highly personal—figurative vocabulary of his works from the 1970s.

Claude Monet made one trip to Venice in 1908 rather late in his life. He was 68 when he arrived. While he was there he started 37 pictures which he would take several years to eventually finish, exhibit and sell. Sotheby’s is mimicking Monet’s desultory route to market for his Venetian views with today’s announcement.

The total for Sotheby’s London Evening sales was $296,145,253 with 65 of the 76 lots offered finding buyers. That 85% sell-through rate would have been a very strong sale in the age before auctions were so heavily managed.

Sotheby’s has unveiled another Claude Monet work for the March 2nd sale in London. The late waterlilies work from 1914-1917 was purchased by Sotheby’s former owner Alfred Taubman in 1978 before he owned the auction house.

Five works by Claude Monet are coming to Sotheby’s for their Modern and Contemporary Evening auction in London March 2nd. With the dad-joke title of Monet x Monet | A Distinguished American Collection, the works have a combined estimate around $40 million (£30m).

Jiménez, who is Sotheby's Chairman, Managing Director & Worldwide Head Business Development Global Fine Arts, connects the challenges of 2020 to the incredible art market successes of 2021.

Among René Magritte’s many famous images expressing the uncanniness of modern life, none is as recognizable as his composition titled L’empire des lumières, of which he made 17 different versions beginning in 1948.

Everyone knew 2021 was an extraordinary year simply judging from the first half results six months ago. Now that the final numbers are in at Sotheby’s we can see that the tally is greater than any time in the firm’s previous 277-year history.

Sotheby’s sold a rare and storied Roman statue of Aphrodite in London for a record price of £18.6 million ($24.6 million). Sotheby’s says the price is a record for any ancient marble sculpture sold at auction. The work was offered in a single lot sale with a low estimate of £2 million.