Main points
- Christie's auction house made $1.1 billion overnight, setting records for works by Jackson Pollock and Constantin Brancusi.
- Nicole Kidman starred in a promotional video for the auction, Brancusi's “Danaide” was sold for $107.6 million, breaking the previous record.
Nicole Kidman / CNN Photo
Christie's auction house made $1.1 billion overnight after actress Nicole Kidman starred in a promotional video against the backdrop of a Brancusi sculpture worth $107 million.
This is reported by CNN.
Christie's auction house took just 40 minutes to sell more than $630 million worth of artwork on Monday night, setting records for painter Jackson Pollock and sculptor Constantin Brancusi. The auction ended with another record, bringing in $490 million.
The total amount of the first part of the auction in New York was $1.1 billion, it included 16 works from the famous collection of Samuel Irving Newhouse.
Christie's has put up for sale for the fourth time the work of the late media magnate, who owned the publishing house Condé Nast, as well as a significant portion of American newspapers and television and radio companies.
The auction house invited Nicole Kidman to film a promotional video in which she interacted with Constantin Brancusi's gold bust “Danais”, which was to be one of the main lots of the evening.
Promotional video with Nicole Kidman: watch online
The painting “Danais”, sold for $107.6 million including commission, almost immediately after the start of bidding, broke Brancusi's previous auction record of $71.2 million.
Pollock's iconic work sold for $181.2 million, including commission, and became the most expensive lot of the evening, surpassing the previous record for the abstract expressionist in 2021 of $61.2 million.
The auction also featured works by Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian, Henri Matisse, Joan Miró, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and three masterpieces from the collection of former Museum of Modern Art president Agnes Gund. They set a new record of $98.4 million for a work by Mark Rothko.
What scandal has Nicole Kidman recently been involved in?
Nicole Kidman recently outraged Ukrainians by stating her interest in Russian culture and authors. The Hollywood actress recalled how she admired Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky.
According to Kidman, she couldn't stop reading Russian writers. In addition, the celebrity recalled a trip to St. Petersburg in 2018.