On
Monday night in New York, auction house Christie's sold one of his
paintings, Reclining Nude, to the Chinese billionaire Liu Yiqian for a
staggering £113 million. Its
astronomical price means Modigliani is the creator of the second-most
expensive painting ever sold. Only Picasso's Women of Algiers, brought
in May for around £118 million, has sold for more.
The
artwork, one of his greatest, hit the sweet spot of 'rarity, quality
and beauty all represented in the same object', said Christie's.
Unshaven,
with thick, black unkempt hair, a filthy jacket and fingernails
yellowing and blackened with a mixture of nicotine and oil paint, the
man looked the epitome of a struggling Parisian artist.
His
haunts were bars and cafes in the bohemian Montparnasse area of Paris,
where he would drink highly addictive absinthe until he ran out of
money. And when that happened, he would prostitute his talents to raise a
couple of francs for his next few shots of the demon spirit.
Even
though it was the summer of 1917 and the height of World War I, Paris
thronged with tourists. Whenever one of these well-heeled visitors sat
next to him at his favourite bar, the Rotonde, he would quickly sketch a
portrait of them, before offering it with a drunken, aggressive sales
pitch. 'I am Modigliani,' he would say. 'A Jew. Five francs.'
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