£45m Gauguin Art Forecast

Christie's International said it may sell Paul Gauguin's painting 'L'Homme a la Hache' for a record $45 million at a New York art auction on Nov 8. The 1891 portrait of a man lifting an axe was one of the French artist's first renderings of the Tahitian landscape after he arrived on the island and has been shown at New York's Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and London's Royal Academy. The seller is a 'lady of title,'. Christie's and rival Sotheby's are gathering art for their November art auctions, the second biggest of the year. On Nov 8, Christie's also plans to offer a Picasso painting owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber's foundation for as much as $60 million and an Ernst Ludwig Kirchner work with a top estimate of $25 million. Last year, Christie's, which is owned by the French billionaire Francois Pinault, sold $160.9 million of impressionist and modern art at its evening sale in November, and $180 million in May, 2006. Sotheby's total was $130 million in November and $207.6 million in May, when it raised $95.2 million from the sale of Picasso's 'Dora Maar au Chat.' Gauguin's auction record of $39.2 million was struck in 2004, when Sotheby's sold another Tahitian painting, 'Maternite II'. For the full story - click the title Irish Art