Matisse painting sells for £28m

Feb 25 2009 Liverpool Daily Post

A PAINTING by Henri Matisse sold for £28.1m – a record price for a work by the French artist at auction – at a sale of art from the estate of Yves Saint Laurent, auction house Christie’s said.

The sale came at the start of a three-day Paris auction of art from the collection of the late French fashion designer that some are calling “the sale of the century”.

A Piet Mondrian painting that had inspired one of Saint Laurent’s most memorable dresses sold for nearly £17.5m. Sales reached £180m in the auction’s first day – marked by six world record prices for works by individual artists at the auction in the cavernous, glass-topped Grand Palais museum hall.