Selling for a hot $16.6 million, Joan Miro’s iconic “Blue Star” painting was a shining star at Aguttes Auction House, in association with the specialist Dan Coissard, which set new records with its December 21 sale at Hôtel Drouot that auctioned off ten key pieces from the illustrious private collection of André Lefèvre that realized more than $30 million. These ten pieces included works by Miro, Picasso, Juan Gris, Henri Laurens and Fernand Léger.

Lefèvre, a successful banker, retired around the age of 40 after the Second World War to pursue his passion for art. He assembled, in his collection, 275 paintings of the most prestigious and significant artists of his time, including Picasso, Braque, Miró, Léger, Gris and Modigliani.

These ten works, conserved for the past 40 years in safe deposit boxes, had not been seen by the public since they were last exhibited with the rest of the André Lefèvre Collection at the Musée national d’Art Moderne in Paris in 1964.

A complete report will appear in a future issue.