Volatility Returns to the Impressionist and Modern Market

Sotheby's Imp-Mod sale reveals wild price swings up and down; Simon de Pury wins his $10m Gauguin commission.

Let’s not bury the lede on last night’s sale at Sotheby’s where $349.8m in Impressionist and Modern art was sold. The top lot of the night made a hammer price that was 75% of the whisper number on the extraordinarily valuable and mysteriously guarantee-covered painting. If that sale wasn’t intriguing enough, the buyer of the Monet also seems to have tak…