Art auction benefits MOMA

Christie’s launched New York’s auction season Tuesday night with a $56.6-million sale of Impressionist and Modern art that fell short of the firm’s expectations but raised $12.1 million for the Museum of Modern Art’s acquisition fund.

“Il grande metafisico,” a 1917 painting by Giorgio de Chirico consigned by MOMA, commanded the sale’s top price, $7.1 million, and set an auction record for the Italian Surrealist’s work. Paintings by Marc Chagall and Rene Magritte, also from the museum’s collection, each brought $1.2 million.

Seven of the 39 artworks offered failed to find buyers, but many pieces fetched more than $1 million. A 1947 abstraction by Joan Miro brought the sale’s second-highest price, $5.8 million. A Parisian Jazz Age portrait by Tamara de Lempicka was knocked down for $4.5 million. A landscape by Claude Monet was sold for $4 million.