Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s painting of a Paris laundress, “La Blanchisseuse,” may fetch as much as $25 million at an auction in New York on Nov. 1, said Christie’s International.

The French artist’s picture, probably painted before he was
23 years old, is part of a U.S. collection that may raise almost
$50 million, the London-based auction house said in an e-mailed
statement. The collection was assembled in the late 1960s and
early 1970s, and includes works by Pierre Bonnard, Claude Monet,
Camille Pissarro and Alfred Sisley, Christie’s said.
Christie’s, which is owned by French billionaire Francois
Pinault, overtook rival auction house Sotheby’s Holdings Inc. this
year as its art sales jumped 25.6 percent in the first half from a
year earlier. The two auction houses are gathering pictures for
their November sales in New York.
Toulouse-Lautrec, who died in 1901, is known for his
paintings and posters of dancers and prostitutes, sometimes using
the style of Japanese prints. In 1997, Christie’s sold a painting
of a ballerina by the artist for a hammer price of $13.2 million,
the highest value for any picture of his recorded by sales tracker
Artnet AG.
Christie’s sold 879 million pounds ($1.65 billion) of art at
auctions and in private transactions in the first six months of
2005. Sotheby’s, which has its main auction rooms in New York,
reported first-half art sales of $1.33 billion, down from $1.35
billion in the first six months of 2004.

Posted: 09|10|05 at 10:28 am. Filed under: US News.