In addition to being a pioneer in nude paintings, Modigliani is also part of a select community of only three artists whose work has been sold for more than $150 for a single painting. Should Nu couché (sur le côté gauche) outperform Sotheby’s estimate and crack the $170.4 million that holds a spot on the list of the highest amounts ever paid for a painting at auction, it will be replacing yet another Modigliani in the process: The most famous painting in the Nu Couché series sold for that amount to art collector Liu Yiqian in 2015. That scenario is well within the realm of possibility, but it’s highly unlikely that this painting will be able to surpass the other figures on that list – Picasso’s Women of Algiers (version O) went for almost $180 million in 2015, and Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi busted the record books wide open last year, when it sold for more than $450 million. Regardless of what happens, it’s a certainty that the sale of Nu couché (sur le côté gauche) will represent a massive profit for its current owner, John Magnier, who bought it for just under $27 million, back in 2003.
