Christie’s London Auction Brings Modest Art and Modest Sales

Christie’s Images Ltd  Wassily Kandinsky’s “Studie ze Improvisation 3.”

LONDON - A colorful canvas painted by Wassily Kandinsky in 1909 brought $21.1 million at Christie’s here on Tuesday night. In 2008 the same painting brought $16.8 million at a New York auction.

For the start of the summer auction season here, Christie’s had cobbled together a modest sale of Impressionist and modern art. Still the auction house managed to sell $100.4 million worth of art, above its low estimate of $82.8 million, but not reaching its high of $118.8 million. Of the 44 works on offer, seven failed to find buyers.

After the sale ended, Jussi Pylkkänen, president of Christie’s Europe and the evening’s auctoneer said there were buyers from emerging markets like Asia, Russia and India, “corners of the world we weren’t touching five years ago.’’

Acquiring top quality paintings and sculptures has been difficult for both Chritstie’s and Sotheby’s, which will hold its Impressionist and modern art on Wednesday. The best works are either in museums and not available for sale or secreted away in private homes where collectors, uncertain of the financial markets, are holding onto them. As a result this month both auction houses have relied on the considerable inventory amassed by the Nahmads â€" the dynasty of dealers with spaces in New York and London â€" to supply them with many of their priciest works.

The family has been in the hot seat recently. In April, Hillel Nahmad, 34, known as Helly, was charged by federal prosecutors with playing! a leading role in a gambling and money-laundering operation that stretched from Kiev and Moscow to Los Angeles and New York, where he is based. Mr. Nahmad has denied these charges and was absent on Tuesday evening, because he had to surrender his passport as part of his bail agreement. But plenty of other family members were there and bidding, including Mr. Nahmad’s father, David, his cousin from London, who is also called Helly, his brother David and his uncle, Ezra. It was the Nahmad’s who owned the Kandinsky, purchased nearly five years ago at a Christie’s sale in New York.

(Final prices include the buyer’s premium: 25 percent for the first $75,000; 20 percent on the next $75,001 to $1.5 million and 12 percent on the rest. Estimates do not reflect commissions.)

Christie’s Images Ltd Modgiliani’s 1916 portrait of the art dealer Paul Guillaume.

Besides selling the Kandinsky â€" “Studie ze Improvisation 3’’ which was snapped up by Beda Jedlicka, a Zurich dealer who said he was bidding on behalf of a client, the Nahmad’s were also the owners of another top work â€" Modgiliani’s 1916 portrait of the art dealer Paul Guillaume. A familiar image to seasoned auction goers, the painting had been at auction three times in 17 years, first at Christie’s in 1996, when the Las Vegas casino owner Stephen A. Wynn bought it for $3.4 million, and then at Sotheby’s in New York in 2000 for $4.6 million. In 2006 the Nahmads bought it for $4.8 million, just below its $5 million low estimate. This time around Christie’s had expected it to bring $7.6 million to $11 million. Representatives from the Hammer Galleries in New York bought it for $10.6 million.

The sale also featured! a number! of late-era Picassos. “Femme Assise dans un Fauteuil,’’ a 1960 portrait of the artist’s wife Jacqueline Roque was expected to fetch $6.1 million to $9 million. It had last been on the market at Sotheby’s in New York in 2006 where it sold for $6.7 million. John Lumley, vice-chairman of Christie’s in Europe, could be seen bidding on behalf of the New York dealer William Acquavella who ended up paying $9.5 million for the painting.

Like many of the dealers in the audience Daniella Luxembourg, who divides her time between London and New York, was talking after the sale about the endless appetite for art, no matter what is on offer. “There’s money for art,’’ she said. “There’s no doubt about it.’’