It was auctioned alongside works of other legendary artists, such as Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet, and Pablo Picasso.
A rare painting of Dutch artist Piet Mondrian, “Composition No. II,” was sold for $51 million on Monday. The 1930 piece is a new record for Mondrian, who’s known for pioneering neoplasticism—an abstract painting style that uses horizontal and vertical lines and primary colors.
“Composition No. II” was part of the Sotheby’s Modern Evening Auction in New York. It was auctioned alongside works of other legendary artists, such as Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet, and Pablo Picasso.
READ ALSO: You Can Do It Too: Royal College Of Art Launches Virgil Abloh Scholarship For Black British Students
Julian Dawes, Sotheby’s Head of Impressionist & Modern Art in the Americas, told ABC News about the importance of the Mondrian Piece. “Composition No. II embodies everything you could want from a Mondrian,” he said. “It is a seminal painting that is both crucial to the development of modern art and emblematic of the enduring appeal of the modern aesthetic.”
Before November 14, “Composition No. II” was last on the auction block in 1983. It was sold to a Japanese collector for only $2.1 million (or $6.3 million in current times). Dawes told Forbes that in the eighties, the art market was “vastly different and far less global and competitive” than today.
Banner image from Sotheby’s.
