Rare Mondrian Sells for $47.6 Million
186May 14, 2025
A 1922 gridded primary-color work by Dutch modernist Piet Mondrian fetched $47.6 million inclusive of fees at Christie’s spring auction in New York on May 12. The roughly twenty-one-inch-square canvas—whose size theNew York Timessomewhat cruelly likened to that of a throw pillow—hammered for $41 million after sparking a bidding war between two collectors, with the absent and as yet unnamed victor offering the winning price via telephone. TitledComposition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue, the painting was part of a group of works for sale that had been drawn from the collection of Louise Riggio and her late husband, Leonard Riggio, founder of bookseller Barnes & Noble, and had hung in the grand entryway of the couple’s Park Avenue apartment. The price commanded was inside its $40 million–$50 million estimate and is the third-highest amount paid at auction to date for a Mondrian work, behind the $50.6 million fetched by the 1929 canvasComposition No. III, with Red, Blue, Yellow, and Black, in 2015 at Christie’s and the record-setting $51 million achieved by the 1930 paintingComposition No. IIin 2022 at Sotheby’s.
Christie’s spring sale took place in two segments, the first encompassing thirty-nine works from the Riggio collection and the second, conducted later in the evening, featuring twentieth-century art. Though a Warhol canvas estimated to snare $30 million,Big Electric Chair, 1967–68, was pulled from the later sale at the last minute, the night closed with a total of $489 million in sales, inclusive of fees. The event was closely watched, owing to concerns that the artmarketmight be softening amid tariff turmoil the attendant global financial insecurity it has triggered.