Gao Geng Works to Present at Christie's 2011 Auction

Christie's will be offering £74 million to £109 million worth of art at the first major auction in 2011, including Paul Gauguin's still life work. Despite concerns about the overall economic strength, the art market set a record in 2010 and hopes that the evening auction of Impressionism and contemporary art held on February 9th this year could set a second record at Christie's London auction.

“2010 was a milestone year for the art market. The record and results of this year's auction are obvious to all,” said Giovanna Bertazzoni, Christie’s director of auctions for impressionism and contemporary art in London. “This is because of the results driven by people’s demand for rare, market-impressive impressionism and modern art works in a meaningful way. At last year’s auction, impressionism and modern art products occupied seven of the top ten selling prices. Locations, and six of their works sold for more than $50 million. This type of work continues to attract new collectors in mature and emerging art markets, including China and Russia."

The highest-priced item on the evening auction on February 9, 2011, is expected to be Gauguin's Still Life and Hope (Nature Morte a 'L'Esperance), which was drawn in 1901 and is the four drawings drawn by the artist that year. A picture of a sunflower oil painting. It was shown at the Gauguin retrospective in 1906, and although the painting has not appeared before the public since 1989, it has been exhibited in more than 20 important museum exhibitions.

The auction also includes four works collected by the Art Institute of Chicago, led by Georges Braque "Nature Morte a la guitare (rideaux rouge)", which is valued between 3.5-5.5 million pounds. The main auction items are valued at between 585 million and 81 million pounds, while the other 1900 to 25 million pounds originates from surreal works that were auctioned on the same evening. They include oil paintings by René Magritte and Salvador Dali. Fewer auction items will be auctioned during the daytime auction on February 10, which is priced at 1500-2200 pounds before the auction.