'Scandalous' $60 Million Modigliani Nude Headlines Sotheby's Lewis Collection Sale

A rare Amedeo Modigliani nude is about to test the market again. Sotheby's will offer Nu assis au collier (Seated Nude with Necklace) in its evening sale in London on June 24, with an estimate of about £45 million ($60.6 million). The painting has not appeared at auction in more than 30 years, and it arrives as the centerpiece of the Lewis Collection, a 48-work single-owner group carrying a combined estimate of more than £200 million ($268 million).

The canvas belongs to one of the most closely watched categories in Modigliani's output. It is one of only seven full nudes included in the artist's December 1917 solo exhibition, the only show he mounted during his lifetime. That exhibition was shut down by police on opening night for indecency, a detail that still shadows the reception of these works and helps explain their enduring charge.

Joe Lewis acquired Nu assis au collier in 1995 for $12.4 million at Christie's, from the collection of New York lawyer Ralph F. Colin and his wife, Georgia Talmey Colin. Its return to auction gives Sotheby's a work with both rarity and a long, traceable provenance - two qualities that continue to shape demand for Modigliani at the top end of the market.

The artist's auction record remains $170 million for Nu Couché, sold at Christie's in 2015. Sotheby's has also recently posted strong results for Modigliani, including the €27 million ($31.4 million) sale of Elvire en buste last October in Paris. With interest in the artist buoyed by a new catalogue raisonné and renewed public attention, the June sale will offer another measure of how far collectors are still willing to go for one of modern art's most coveted nudes.

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