Sargent record at auction

A painting by John Singer Sargent has sold for $23.5m (£12.1m), setting a new auction record for the artist.

Group with Parasols (A Siesta) was bought anonymously at a Sotheby's auction in New York on Thursday.

From the BBC, with more in the Telegraph:

There was speculation yesterday that the buyer of Group with Parasols (A Siesta) was Bill Gates, the billionaire founder of the Microsoft computer empire.

Mr Gates has built up one of the most extensive private art collections over the past decade, with works by American painters forming the core.

Five bidders competed for the painting by Sargent, who was an American citizen but lived in London for much of his life and became a fashionable portraitist of high society.

The anonymous buyer, who had left a commission bid with the auctioneer William Stahl in the New York saleroom, was prepared to double both the pre-sale estimate for the picture and the previous record paid for a Sargent in 1996.

Press release on the sale at Artprice.com.

Posted by David on December 7, 2004 9:53 AM