Joan Miro Painting Set Auction Record

A modern masterpiece by Spanish artist Joan Miro has set an auction record for the painter, fetching USD 36,946,396 at Sotheby’s London sale.

The 1927 Peinture (Etoile Bleue) exceeded the pre-sale estimate of USD 23.7 – 31.6 million and shattered the previous auction record for Miro. 

“We are thrilled to have been able to offer Miro’s Peinture (Etoile Bleue) in tonight’s auction,” said Chairman of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Department, Europe Helena Newman. 

“At a time of unprecedented demand for the best examples of 20th-Century art, this masterpiece by Miro not only shattered the previous record for the artist (set only four months ago at £16.8 million), but also made more than three times the price it achieved five years ago.”

A telephone buyer purchased the item and the amount paid was the highest price for a work of art sold in London this year so far.

Peinture (Etoile Bleue) belongs to Miro’s ‘dream paintings’ cycle – in which the artist introduced his unique poetic form of abstraction, examples of which can be found in famous museums such as the Musee National d’Art Moderne in Paris, the Tate Gallery in London and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.