"Chariot" Alberto Giacometti (1952). Photo courtesy of Artnet.com

On Tuesday, November 4, Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern evening sale garnered $422.1 million, with works by Giacometti, Modigliani, and van Gogh leading the auction. Meeting the presale expectation of between $316 and $423.1 million, the evening sale brought in the highest amount reached in the 270-year-old company’s history for a single auction.

"Tête" Amedeo Modigliani (1912). Photo courtesy of Artnet.com

The star attraction of the sale was undoubtedly Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti’s “Chariot”, which surpassed its estimate of $100 million, to sell for $101 million. Conceived in 1950 and cast between 1951 and 1952, “Chariot” is a bronze piece depicting a rail-thin female form atop a platform attached to large wheels. Simon Shaw, Sotheby’s co-head of Impressionist and Modern Art said of the piece, “With its connotations of healing, strength, and magic, this heroic sculpture is a symbol of renewal following the Second World War.” The sculpture, won by a single phone bid, is the second most expensive sculpture ever sold at auction, only surpassed by Giacometti’s own “Homme qui marche I” [“Walking Man I”], which was sold for $104.3 million in 2010.

Also featured was Amedeo Modigliani’s “Tête” (1911-1912), which sold for $70.7 million, an auction record for the artist. Never before offered at auction, “Tête” is part of a series of sculptures depicting female busts in an angular and elongated style, evoking Egyptian goddesses, which are carved from single blocks of limestone, known as pierre d’Euville, that were collected from construction sites around Paris. The auction smashed the previous record of $52.3 million for an earlier, smaller version of “Tête” sold by Christie’s in 2010.

Some see the auction as a harbinger of a revitalized sculpture market. Says Sotheby’s Shaw of the record breaking auction, “The market is rediscovering sculpture and they are now among the most desirable works of art.” He adds, “Since Samuel Sotheby held his first auction in London in 1744, I’m delighted to say we reached an extraordinary result this evening, one we’ve never seen before.”

"Still Life, Vase with Daisies and Poppies" Vincent van Gogh (1890). Photo courtesy of Artnet.com

Others, such as Thomas Seydoux of the Connery Pissarro Seydoux Group, expressed incredulity at the low bid numbers for the evening, stating, “One bidder in the world for this? It just seems crazy. It’s so much better than Walking Man!” Journalist Lee Rosenbaum commented that the sale “[was] the dullest auction I’ve ever experienced, online or in person. Wake me when it’s over.”

Sculpture wasn’t the only focus of the evening, however, as a Vincent van Gogh piece, “Still Life, Vase with Daisies and Poppies” (1890) sold to a private Chinese collector for an unexpected $61.8 million, more than $10 million over the presale estimate and the highest price achieved by a van Gogh at auction since 1998. Painted three months before van Gogh’s death, “Vase with Daisies and Poppies” is one of the few works he sold during his lifetime and one of only a handful of van Gogh pieces to have gone to auction in recent decades.

Other artists represented at the auction include: Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, Claude Monet, Wassily Kandinsky, and Joan Miró. The Impressionist and Modern auctions will continue tonight, Wednesday November 5, at Christie’s.