Modigliani nude sets European auction record at London art sale

The first part of a London auction of Joe Lewis's private art collection raked in $392.6 million on Wednesday, led by Amedeo Modigliani's nude portrait "Nu assis au collier" (Seated Nude Wearing a Necklace), which sold for $63.9 million—the highest price ever for a Modigliani at auction in Europe, according to Sotheby's.

Forty-eight works from the collection of Joe Lewis, the former owner of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, were sold on Wednesday and Thursday. Lewis transferred his majority stake in the club in 2022 and is now worth £5.8 billion, according to The Sunday Times Rich List. The sale also included Gustav Klimt's full-length society portrait "Bildnis Gertrud Loew," which fetched $47.9 million from a private collector in Asia, and Lucian Freud's "Sleeping by the Lion Carpet" at $38.8 million.

The remaining 23 works go under the hammer on Thursday, including Picasso's 1938 "Buste de femme" (Bust of a woman), depicting French artist Dora Maar, valued at £12-18 million.

The previous European auction record for a single private collection was set in 2009 by the estate of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge, which sold at Christie's for €373.9 million (then about £333 million).

In March, four other paintings from the Lewis Collection by British artists of the School of London, including Freud and Bacon, sold for £35.8 million at Sotheby's.