What to Know
- A 1917 nude masterpiece fetched more than $157 million earlier this week, a record price for a Sotheby's auction
- Amedeo Modigliani's work, titled Nu couché (sur le côté gauche), last sold at auction for just $26.9 million in 2003
- Modigliani now belongs to a rare club that includes only Pablo Picasso and Leonardo Da Vinci
A 1917 nude masterpiece by Amedeo Modigliani sold for $157.2 million in Manhattan Monday, the highest auction price in Sotheby's history.
That marks a near six-fold increase from the paltry $26.9 million the most recent owner paid for the work, titled Nu couché (sur le côté gauche), at auction in 2003, according to Sotheby's.
Modigliani, an Italian painter and sculptor working primarily in France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, now belongs to a rarefied league of only three artists to break the $150 million barrier at auction, Sotheby's says. Pablo Picasso and Leonardo da Vinci are the others.
Modigliani died of tubercular meningitis at the age of 35 in Paris. Most of his acclaim came after his death.
