Three sales, in addition to three single‑owner collections, highlighting:
Claude Lalanne's Pomme de New York at the Château de Chenonceau, estimated between €5 million and €7 million, on view in Paris from 9 to 15 April, and La Femme au Chapeau by Maurice de Vlaminck, estimated between €5 million and €7 million, to be offered in the 20/21 Marquee Week Evening Sale on 15 April in Paris. © Christie's Images Limited 2026
Paris – Christie's announces three various‑owner sales to be held in Paris on April 15, 16, and 17, alongside the three collection sales already announced. This Paris 20/21 Marquee Week follows the momentum of the sales held in early March in London, which positioned Christie's at the top of the market with more than €281M in results. On April 15 at 5:30 p.m., the day after the sale dedicated to Pierre Bonnard and immediately following the single‑owner sale Radical Genius: Works on Paper from a Distinguished Private Collection, the 20/21 Century Art - Evening Sale will be one of the major highlights of the Paris season. Centered around Maurice Vlaminck's Fauvist masterpiece La Femme au Chapeau (€5,000,000–7,000,000), from the former Ambroise Vollard collection, and Claude Lalanne's celebrated Pomme de New York (€5,000,000–7,000,000), the sale will present a tightly curated selection of several dozen major works, ranging from Claude Monet to Gerhard Richter. On April 16, the Contemporary Art Day Sale will celebrate spring with The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven) – 2 January, an iPad painting by David Hockney (€150,000–200,000), offered among a hundred contemporary works spanning from Keith Haring to Marlene Dumas and including Josef Albers. Finally, on April 17, the recent rediscovery of a van Gogh drawing (€100,000–150,000) will be one of the major highlights of the Art Impressionniste et Moderne Day Sale, presented alongside a hundred works by Odilon Redon, Paul Klee, Félix Vallotton, and Albert Marquet.
Over the course of three days, works from major Parisian, European, and North American collections will be offered across the three sessions. Thanks to the second spring edition of Thinking Italian, Italian art will also take center stage, with works by Lucio Fontana, Giorgio de Chirico, Jannis Kounellis, and Mario Schifano, who is currently the subject of a major retrospective in Rome running through July.
20/21 Century Art - Evening Sale April 15 :
Pomme de New York in Paris : With its spectacular dimensions (nearly 2.5 meters tall), Claude Lalanne's Pomme de New York, the artist's largest apple sculpture, is no stranger to extraordinary exhibition venues. From Park Avenue in New York in 2010 to the Château de Versailles in 2021, it is photographed today at the Château de Chenonceau, the site where François‑Xavier and Claude Lalanne presented a major retrospective of their work in 1991. An emblematic symbol of Claude Lalanne's universe, the Pomme de New York (€5,000,000–7,000,000) perfectly embodies the organic poetry and free‑spirited imagination that permeate her entire oeuvre. Both sculpture and object, it reflects the artist's unique ability to transform the everyday into a realm of reverie, where the vegetal becomes a precious material. Following this masterpiece, the sale will feature a Mirror from 2009 (€600,000–800,000), a unique piece of exceptionally rare dimensions, and a Pair of Doors from 2010 (€200,000–300,000), designed for the Lalanne retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and equally inspired by vegetal forms. These works will be presented alongside celebrated examples from François‑Xavier Lalanne's bestiary, including Tables éléphantines (€300,000–500,000 each), a Mouton de pierre and an Agneau (€250,000–350,000 each), as well as a Poisson paysage (€150,000–250,000).
A prestigious provenance for a Vlaminck painting : Coming directly from the collection of the famous French art dealer Ambroise Vollard, Maurice de Vlaminck's La Femme au chapeau of 1906 epitomizes Fauvism with its thick impastos of electric yellows, reds, oranges, blues and light greens building up a very vibrant surface. A woman wearing a lavish white dress, defined by heavily textured white impastos, relaxes in a chair, staring out to the viewer with her extravagant make-up and very Expressionist mask-like face. Together with Vlaminck's portrait of a dancer from the Rat Mort cabaret (Location unknown; 1906), La Femme au chapeau is Vlaminck's only known full-length portrait and offers a rare opportunity for collectors to acquire a Fauve museum-quality painting with such impeccable provenance, which has not been seen by the public for more than 45 years, since it was last exhibited in Japan in 1982.
Women Artists at Christie's : Claude Lalanne leads a rich selection of works by women artists who, for the most part, have recently been the focus of major exhibitions in numerous Paris museums. For Germaine Richier, it is a Coureur (Grand) shown at the Musée Rodin, which illustrates the new representations of men and women forged in the post‑war period, earning the artist significant recognition at the Centre Pompidou in 2023 (€300,000–500,000). An Untitled work by Maria Helena Vieira da Silva from an important European collection (€250,000–350,000), a tempera and metal‑leaf on canvas by Anna‑Eva Bergman that has remained in the same Belgian collection since 1976 (€100,000–150,000), and a 2016 linen and gold‑leaf weaving emblematic of Olga de Amaral's oeuvre, presented at the Fondation Cartier in 2025 (€400,000–600,000), complete this grouping. All these works follow, each in their own way, in the footsteps of the two Impressionist masterpieces by Berthe Morisot announced earlier. From this key figure in the broader movement recognizing the place of women in art history, the sale will feature Jeune fille accoudée (€700,000–1,000,000) and Jeune fille cueillant des oranges (€600,000–800,000).
Prestigious Impressionist Works on Paper : The sale also offers an impressive selection of works on paper. Femme en peignoir jaune se coiffant, a rich and large pastel and charcoal drawing by Edgar Degas from a Swiss collection (€1,800,000–2,500,000), is emblematic of an oeuvre that marks a fundamental rupture in the history of art while revisiting its most traditional subjects. A pastel by Claude Monet commemorates the centenary of the artist's passing and recalls the long process of restitution. Seized in Vienna by the Gestapo in 1940, the work was only returned to its rightful owners in 2024 (€300,000–500,000). From prestigious provenance and widely exhibited across the world, Les Baigneuses, a red chalk drawing by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (€400,000–600,000), enriches this selection alongside a 1910 Tour Eiffel by the young Marc Chagall, newly arrived in Paris from Saint Petersburg (€500,000–800,000).
The avant-gardes of the 20th century are also represented by a captivating portrait of a woman painted by Chaïm Soutine around 1918 (€400,000–600,000), a large 1967 blue-toned canvas by Joan Miró (€700,000–1,000,000) combining poetry and gesture, as well as a totemic bronze sculpture by the same artist, Femme et oiseau from 1970 (€450,000–650,000), blending humor and eroticism, two dominant themes of his oeuvre. Promenade der Empfindsamen, a meticulous 1923 watercolor by Paul Klee (€280,000–400,000), adds to this modern section and stands out thanks to its impressive history of international exhibitions. Finally, a rare 1922 purist still life by Le Corbusier, from the Heidi Weber Gallery (€300,000–500,000), and a highly dynamic post‑Cubist canvas by Jean Metzinger, dated 1916 (€600,000–800,000), complete this resolutely modern grouping.
Major Collections for Post‑War Masters : With a beautiful work on paper by Cy Twombly (€350,000–550,000), executed in 1964 and illustrated in the 2014 catalogue raisonné, the transition into a rich post‑war section once again begins with drawing. This part of the sale includes Peinture 130 x 89 cm, 25 juin 1954, a canvas by Pierre Soulages (€1,000,000–1,500,000) from the prestigious collection of Max and Cécile Draime, major patrons of the Butler Institute of American Art and ardent supporters of the French master's work in the United States. From the same year, L'Oiseau de feu, an oil on canvas by Karel Appel that has not appeared on the market for forty years, comes from an important Parisian private collection dispersed across the three sales of the week (€150,000–250,000). From this same collection, an Untitled 1950 canvas by Jean‑Paul Riopelle, offering an extraordinary harmony of colors punctuated by thick drippings of oil paint, is one of the highlights of the sale (€1,000,000–1,500,000). Femmes et oiseaux dans la nuit, painted in 1967 by Joan Miró, comes from the important Canadian collection of Eph and Shirley Diamond. Exhibited at the Fondation Maeght in 1979, the work had not left the couple's spectacular Toronto penthouse since 1983 (€700,000–1,000,000). Also painted in 1967, a major, previously unseen Composition abstraite by Serge Poliakoff, not shown to the public since its last exhibition in Brazil in the mid‑1970s (€400,000–600,000) and an oil on canvas by Fernando Botero, La Dolorosa (€250,000–350,000), illustrate the dialogue between abstraction and figuration that animated the post‑war art world.
With a work that constantly navigates between these two historical conceptions of art, Gerhard Richter leads the most contemporary section of the sale. Painted in 1992, Abstraktes Bild perfectly illustrates the richness, diversity, and complexity of the great German master's oeuvre (€1,700,000–2,500,000). A drawing by Jean-Michel Basquiat (€250,000–350,000), a canvas by Günther Uecker (€350,000–550,000), and sculptures by Anish Kapoor (€400,000–600,000) and Antony Gormley (€300,000–500,000) complete this highly international selection, extending it into the most contemporary periods.
Art Contemporain April 16 :
From the careful observations he conducted between January and June 2011 in Yorkshire, David Hockney developed an ambitious project composed of 51 iPad drawings and a monumental painting, presented in a dedicated gallery at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven) – 2 January is a joyful work from the most important series of iPad drawings ever produced by the artist—who has made this medium one of his signatures (€150,000–200,000). Part of the series was exhibited at the Fondation Louis Vuitton. Following the London sale of the monumental Autour de la maison, été 2019 (12 meters long), this Paris sale offers yet another illustration of the strong ties uniting the British artist and France.
Also very much in the spotlight in Paris where she is the first woman to join the Louvre's tradition of in situ commissions in 2025, Marlène Dumas is represented by another highly topical work, Life – Before birth (€70,000–100,000). Group of Three Figures, a 2019 steel sculpture by Magdalena Abakanowicz, an artist currently exhibited at the Musée Bourdelle, along with works by Cindy Sherman, Germaine Richier, Louise Bourgeois, Katharina Grosse, and Elaine Sturtevant, completes the strong ensemble devoted to women artists in the Evening Sale.
Emblematic of Keith Haring's visual signature, the 1985 Untitled work carries a particularly moving resonance (€120,000–180,000). Acquired directly from the artist by Marc Sanchez, curator of the very first Keith Haring retrospective in 1985 at the CAPC in Bordeaux, the work has remained in his collection ever since.
Also rare—this time due to its highly singular composition within Josef Albers' œuvre, Study to Homage to the Square: 3 Yellows with green and grey stands out as one of the key lots of the sale, with an estimate of €180,000 to €220,000.
Art Impressionniste et Moderne April 17 :
In keeping with a week of sales that gives pride of place to works on paper, one of the most striking lots of the 17 April sale will be a double‑sided drawing by van Gogh. Kept out of sight in a Spanish collection for decades, the work—previously known only through bibliographic references—is a true rediscovery. Dated 1890, Cueilleuses de pois (recto) and Esquisse d'un paysage (verso) belong to the very last period of the artist's career, the focus of a major exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay in 2024. Executed in Auvers‑sur‑Oise, the drawing comes from the collection of Dr. Paul Gachet (€100,000–150,000).
Among the other rare sheets offered in the sale, one should particularly note Arbres, a graphite drawing by Paul Cézanne, exhibited in numerous retrospectives dedicated to the artist from Berlin to Tokyo, via Zürich and Martigny (€70,000–100,000). Richly endowed, the works‑on‑paper section also features emblematic examples of Odilon Redon and Léon Spilliaert. Haus auf einer Nordsee Insel (€170,000–280,000), a major 1923 work by Paul Klee, echoes the Radical Genius sale, while two paintings by Berthe Morisot, Nourrice au fond d'un Jardin (€200,000–300,000) and Plage de la comtesse (€50,000–70,000), offer more accessible opportunities than the Evening Sale of 15 April for this increasingly sought‑after artist. Finally, from Félix Vallotton, whose centenary was recently celebrated by the Musée cantonal des Beaux‑Arts de Lausanne, the sale includes two paintings: a magnificent nude and a Joconde commissioned from the artist in 1887 and rediscovered for the retrospective that has just concluded in Lausanne.
Thinking Italian : April 15, 16 and 17 :
After a tour that took them from Turin to Milan and Rome, two paintings by Mario Schifano will be the centerpiece works of the second spring edition of Thinking Italian. Painted in 1963 and long kept in the collection of the renowned art critic Maurizio Calvesi, Untitled has not appeared on the market for twenty years (€120,000–180,000). Following a new world record for Jannis Kounellis achieved last October, the artist is represented this season with Untitled, a canvas painted in 1960 (€600,000–900,000). Another highlight, Salvatore Scarpitta's South Truth stands out for its monumental format, its structure, and its emblematic three-dimensional character (€400,000–600,000).
Selected Highlights:
