A 14-foot-wide Yves Klein painting—the largest format the artist made in his signature pigment, International Klein Blue (IKB)—has sold at Christie’s Paris for €18.4 million ($21.4 million), setting a new auction record for the artist in France.
Offered as the cover lot for the house’s Avant-garde(s) including Thinking Italian sale this week, the work titled California (IKB 71) carried an estimate on request of €16 million to €25 million ($18 million–$29 million).
As ARTnews‘s Sarah Douglas reported in September, California (IKB 71) is one of the few Kleins that comes with a title, named for the state where he showed the work shortly after it was made in 1961. The Paris-based Klein visited the United States only once, when he went to see his longtime supporter Virginia Dwan, proprietor of a legendary Los Angeles gallery. But the painting’s provenance has an extra chapter that Christie’s, working with the Yves Klein Foundation, recently uncovered: On its way from Paris to California, it stopped in New York, where it appeared in a show with dealer Leo Castelli. Klein died the following year, in 1962, after a whirlwind career, at just 34 years old.
California (IKB 71) has been in the same New York collection since 2005, when it was acquired through Pace Gallery after being owned by Swiss collector George Marci. The work was on long-term loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 2005 to 2008, the last time it was publicly exhibited.
While Christie’s would not comment on the consignor in September, art world insiders told ARTnews that it was being sold from the collection of former United Technologies chairman George David, whose company supported Met exhibitions at the time, including shows of Van Gogh and Jasper Johns. David did not return a request for comment.
