The London auction house Sotheby’s gets ready for the first major sale of 2021, to be held on March 25. Among the works to go under the hammer at the event titled “Modern Renaissance” are a painting by Edvard Munch, silverware by Pablo Picasso and a Banksy canvas.
“With the first sale of the year, after having quite a challenging year with the pandemic, we’re really back with a strong selection of pieces,” said Emma Baker, head of Sotheby’s London contemporary evening sale.
“It’s been challenging, but we’ve managed to mass together some incredible pieces from all over the globe.”
Munch’s “Embrace on the Beach” leads the lots with a price estimate of 9 million pounds to 12 million pounds ($12.5 million-$16.6 million) at the auction. A self-portrait of the Norwegian painter is also priced at 4.5 million pounds to 6.5 million pounds.
Picasso’s portrait of photographer Dora Maar, “Femme assise dans un fauteuil,” is expected to fetch between 6.5 million pounds and 8.5 million pounds, while a set of silver plates by the Spanish artist has a price tag of 1.2 million pounds and 1.8 million pounds.
David Hockney’s 4-meter (13-foot) wide landscape “Tall Dutch Trees After Hobbema,” inspired by Meindert Hobbema’s 17th century “The Avenue at Middelharnis,” may fetch between 6.5 million and 8.5 million pounds.
Other artworks on offer include “Portrait of a Youth” by 15th-century painter Piero del Pollaiuolo, with an estimate of between 4 million pounds to 6 million pounds.
Elusive street artist Banksy’s parody canvas of a 1991 Vanity Fair cover of actress Demi Moore, pregnant and naked, is on sale at between 2 million pounds to 3 million pounds.
More than two meters tall, “Original Concept for Barely Legal Poster (after Demi Moore)” features a naked, pregnant figure wearing a monkey mask and smoking a cigarette. The artwork was the poster image for Banksy’s “Barely Legal” exhibition held in Los Angeles in 2006.
