Sotheby’s spring sales of Impressionist and Modern Art achieved an outstanding total of $337,220,400, well above the pre-sale low estimate of $264.3 million. The evening sale realized $278,548,000, the second highest total for an auction in Sotheby’s 263-year history, and the day sale totaled $58,672,400. The top price achieved anywhere during the past week was for one of the most important watercolors by Paul Cézanne remaining in private hands, Nature morte au melon vert (lot 8), which sold for $25,520,000, above the high estimate of $18 million and a record for a work on paper by the artist at auction. That price was closely followed by the record price of $23,280,000 realized by Lyonel Feininger’s spectacularJesuiten III (lot 22), the cover lot of the evening sale which was the subject of an intense bidding battle before selling to a round of applause and more than triple the low estimate (est. $7/9 million). Additional auction records were established for Marino Marini and Theo van Doesburg and for works on paper by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Giacomo Balla. The evening sale was over 90% sold both by lot and by value, and over the course of the two day sale, 44 works sold for more than $1 million; of that, 17 sold for more than $5 million.David Norman, a Chairman of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Department Worldwide, said, “We are ecstatic about the results of the evening sale, which were second only to the all-time record for an auction at Sotheby’s achieved back in May of 1990. There is a hunger in the marketplace for great works of art, whatever the medium or period. We saw remarkable prices for works on paper with the Cézanne still-life and Rose period Picasso; extraordinary results for the German Expressionist work by Feininger and for rare works by artists such as Balla and van Doesburg; and fierce competition for sculpture by Giacometti and Marini. There was great depth in the bidding with numerous new buyers participating in addition to many of our long-time clients. What is particularly notable is the ever-widening geographical diversity of the buying pool.”Highlighting the evening sale was Nature morte au melon vert (lot 8) by Paul Cézanne from the private collection of Giuseppe Eskenazi, which sold for $25,520,000, above the pre-sale estimate of $14/18 million. That price far eclipses the previous record for a work on paper by the artist at auction set by the same work at the legendary The British Rail Pension Fund sale held at Sotheby’s London in 1989.As many as five bidders competed for a painting from the height of Lyonel Feininger’s Expressionist period, Jesuiten III (lot 22), driving the final price to $23,280,000, more than double the high estimate of $9 million and a record for the artist at auction. Bidding was also fierce for Fernand Léger’s superb Les Usines (lot 30), from 1918, which was sought-after by as many as six different bidders, driving the final price to $14,320,000. The painting, which is a brilliant example of the artist’s fascination with the rapidly evolving urban environment, had been estimated to sell for $5/7 million.The evening sale included an outstanding offering of paintings and sculpture spanning the career of Pablo Picasso– from important Rose period works to a powerful painting from 1965 that ranks among the artist’s finest Post- War canvases. Tête d'arlequin (lot 18), one in a series of eight portraits of an anonymous adolescent boy (including the masterful Garçon à la pipe sold by Sotheby’s in 2004 for a record $104.2 million) sold for $15,160,000. A stunning work on paper, Famille d’arlequin (lot 21), consigned by the family of renowned American collector, Joan Whitney Payson, surpassed a high estimate of $8 million to sell for $9,840,000. Another work by the artist, Les Amants (lot 29) from 1932, a rare dual-portrait of the artist watching his young lover Marie-Thérèse Walter as she sleeps, sold for $14,600,000.Le Grand Cirque (lot 40) by Marc Chagall was also among the top lots for the evening sale, selling for $13,760,000. One of the artist’s largest renditions of the circus theme (159.5 x 308.5 cm) and arguably one of the finest works of its kind to ever appear on the auction market, the painting had been estimated to sell for $8/12 million. Joan Miró’s extraordinary Peinture (Le Cheval de cirque) (lot 36), from a series of supremely abstracted depictions of a circus horse painted at the height of his involvement with the Surrealists, brought $8,440,000 (est. $8/10 million).Among the sculpture offered was Alberto Giacometti’s Homme Traversant une place par un matin soleil (lot 28), the artist’s proof from an edition of six casts which brought $7,432,000. The sculpture, which five different bidders competed for, had been estimated to sell for $4/6 million. A rare, unique and monumental sculpture by Marino Marini, L’Idea del Cavaliere (lot 47), sold for $7,040,000. The sculpture, a painted wood version of a work that that was originally conceived in 1955 in plaster and cast in bronze in an edition of four, was estimated at $6/8 million.For the third time, Sotheby’s had the privilege of offering works from the Neumann Family Collection, one of the most important collections of 20th century art in private hands. Giacomo Balla’s Velocità d’automobile + luci (lot 42), which belongs to a seminal group of works exploring the ultimate concepts of Futurism: dynamism, speed and light, sold for $3,960,000, a record for a work on paper by the artist at auction, and Contra- Composition VII (lot 43), a rare work by Theo van Doesburg, a leading member of the De Stijl movement, brought $4,184,000, a record for the artist at auction. Sotheby’s day sale of Impressionist and Modern Art totaled $58,672,400, right in the middle of the pre-sale estimate. The top-selling work was the cover lot for the morning session, André Derain’s Paysage Provençal (lot 227), which surpassed a high estimate of $1.2 million to sell for $2,280,000. August O. Uribe, Senior Vice President and specialist in charge of the sale said, “As expected, we saw an increased level of participation from an ever-expanding non-American client base. The current exchange rate bolstered the confidence of bidders who are accustomed to spending the Euro and British Pound. Nonetheless, American buyers maintained a significant presence in the sale, both buying and underbidding at every price point. Buyers responded positively to great works in both the Impressionist and Modern eras, as evidenced by the range of works among the top ten lots for the sale.”