Christie’s to Offer Modigliani’s ‘Tête’ Sculpture With Estimate of $30 M. to $40 M. in New York in May -ARTnews

Amedeo Modigliani’s Tête, circa 1911–12, which carries an estimate of $30 million to $40 million.

COURTESY CHRISTIE’S

At its evening sale of Impressionist and modern art on May 13 in New York, Christie’s will offer a limestone sculpture by Amedeo Modigliani, Tête (circa 1911–12), with estimate if $30 million to $40 million.

Tête, which is hitting the auction block for the first time, is one of 26 carved-stone sculptures by the Italian artist. Another, also named Tête (1911–12), set the artist’s auction record for sculpture at Sotheby’s New York in November of 2014, when it sold for $70.7 million.

Modigliani’s overall auction record stands at $170.4 million, which was set for his painting Nu couché (1917–18), which sold at Christie’s in 2015. (The Chinese collector Liu Yiqian Liu was reportedly the winner of the work, and famously paid by American Express.)

Giovanna Bertazzoni, Christie’s co-chairman of Impressionist and modern art department, said in a statement to press that the sculpture “is a magical and alluring work by one of the most significant artists of the 20th century.”

Modigliani made all 26 of his known stone sculptures in the Montparnasse neighborhood of Paris between the years of 1911 and 1914—he abruptly abandoned the medium around the start of World War I.