Miro painting sells for record $37 million at auction

A painting by Joan Miro sold for $36.9 million at a London auction Tuesday. The Sotheby’s sale of Miro’s “Peinture (Etoile Bleue)” was an auction record for the late Spanish artist.

The sale was part of a larger Sotheby’s auction of Impressionist and modernist paintings by artists including Pissarro and Kandinsky. The auction, which brought in a reported $117.7 million, was the first of the London summer auction season.

“Peinture (Etoile Bleue)” dates from 1927 and was purchased by its most recent owner in a Paris sale in 2007, according to Sotheby’s.

Another piece that sold on Tuesday was artist Henry Moore’s sculpture “Mother and Child with Apple,” which brought in approximately $5.8 million.

Tuesday’s auction was viewed by some as unimpressive because many lots went unsold or failed to meet sale expectations.

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