07/02/2002

Christie’s, London held their evening sale of Impressionist and Modernist paintings on the 4th of February (consisting of the auction house’s top selection of works – as opposed to their second part sale, the following day, which featured works with lower estimates) making $58.3 million (€62.2 million) with the auction achieving a sale total of 79%. Top lot of the evening was Maurice de Vlaminck's La Seine á Chatou which sold for $9.1 million (€10.6 million) - double its pre-sale estimate. Money from this artwork and two other paintings in this sale will go towards international aid projects run by the vendors, the St Francis of Assisi Foundation (see daily gabrius news 01/02/2002) in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Brazil. Other star lots in the sale included Chaïm Soutine’s Paysage de Cagnes, oil on canvas (54 x 65.1 cm) which sold for $1.97 million (€2.28 million) against an estimate of $700,000-1 million (€808,423-1.15 million). (Andrew Moore)