A painting by Italian master Amedeo Modigliani titled 'Bust of Elvira' sold for 27 million euros ($29 million) including fees at a Paris auction on Friday, setting a new record in France for the artist's work. The sale was conducted by Sotheby's auction house, which announced the historic achievement following what proved to be an exceptional day for art sales in the French capital.
The portrait, created between 1918 and 1919, depicts a young girl from Cagnes-sur-Mer, a coastal town in southeastern France where Modigliani spent time during his career. The subject's face appears in several other paintings by the artist during his stay in the region, making this work part of a significant series in Modigliani's oeuvre. Originally estimated to sell for between 5.5 and 7.5 million euros, the final price far exceeded expectations, demonstrating the continued strong market demand for the Italian artist's distinctive portraits.
The 'Bust of Elvira' was featured as one of the star lots alongside another important Modigliani work - a rare 1915 portrait of Raymond Radiguet, the young prodigy author of 'The Devil in the Flesh.' This second painting sold for 10.6 million euros including fees. Modigliani painted the portrait when most French artists had been mobilized to fight on the front lines during World War I, making it a particularly significant historical piece.
The portrait captures Raymond Radiguet when he was just 12 years old, having already abandoned traditional schooling to frequent the avant-garde artist circles in Montparnasse. Modigliani immortalized the future writer during this formative period, creating a unique document of the young intellectual who would later become famous for his literary works. The painting represents a fascinating intersection of artistic and literary history from early 20th century Paris.
Earlier the same day, Sotheby's achieved another significant sale with René Magritte's 'Black Magic,' which sold for 10.7 million euros including fees. This Belgian surrealist masterpiece set a record for paintings in this particular series, which depicts a female form that appears to transition between flesh, stone, and sky - imagery that has become iconic within Magritte's body of work.
The Magritte painting, completed in 1934 and acquired directly from the artist in 1935 by its previous owners, represents the very first version in the 'Black Magic' series. Originally estimated between 5 and 7 million euros, it significantly surpassed the previous auction record for a 'Black Magic' painting, which was set in 2015 at Christie's in New York for $6.7 million (approximately 5.7 million euros at the time). The successful sales of both the Modigliani and Magritte works demonstrate the continued strength of the European art market and collectors' appetite for masterworks by these celebrated artists.
