On Wednesday, the auction house Christie’s announced that it would hold its fall evening sales during a single week in November, with a nude painting by Amedeo Modigliani expected to fetch $100 million, according to the New York Times’art blog.
Christie’s held its main sales in a single week instead of the traditional two for the first time this spring. The headliner for that auction was a Picasso, which sold for $179.4 million—the highest-priced piece of art ever sold at an auction. Art prices have skyrocketed in recent years: in 2010, a Modigliani nude painting sold at Sotheby’s for $68.9 million, a record high at the time.
Christie’s Nov. 9 sale, which will feature the Modigliani, will also include 25-30 works of art by artists such as Picasso, Giacometti, and Warhol. The Modigliani, from 1917, is called “Nu Couché” (Reclining Nude) and depicts a woman lying naked on a red coverlet.
