NEW YORK—La Belle Romaine last appeared on the market in 1999, when it sold at Sotheby’s New York for $16.8 million, a world record price for any work by Italian artist Modigliani (1884-1920) at the time.
"In addition, Sotheby’s set the current record for a painting by Modigliani in 2004 with our sale of Jeanne Hébuterne (devant une porte) for $31.4 million,” said Simon Shaw, Head of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Department in New York.
Amedeo Modigliani’s Nu assis sur un divan (La Belle Romaine) will be on view in Sotheby’s Hong Kong and London galleries before returning to New York for exhibition and sale at Sotheby’s Nov. 2 Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale.
La Belle Romaine is from what is considered Modigliani’s most important series of nudes, all painted circa 1917.
Seven of the works caused a sensation upon their début in Paris in 1917, attracting a crowd as well as the local police, who temporarily shut down the exhibition. The depiction of contemporary women, removed from any allegorical or historical narrative and exuding a confident sensuality was a new and shocking experience for the French masses.
