[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Amedeo-Modigliani-Tete.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tWith the hope of catching Modigliani momentum evident at auctions in Europe over the past couple years, Phillips is bringing a rare sculpture by the Italian-born modernist to the marquee New York sales in November with a hefty price tag.<\/p>\n
\n\tModigliani\u2019s T\u00eate<\/em> (1911\u201312) will hit the block with a $28 million\u2013$35 million estimate. If it sells, the sculpture will be one of the most expensive three-dimensional works ever sold at auction by the artist, who is best known as a painter of female nudes with almond-shaped eyes.<\/p>\n \n\tThe sculpture belongs to a larger series of heads, examples of which are generally held by major institutions, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the Tate museum network. This one was carved from a block of limestone and features a slender face with a long nose and a tiny, smiling mouth.<\/p>\n \n\tModigliani is thought to have produced around 28 sculptures during his short lifetime. Twenty-six of them survive.<\/p>\n \n\tCalling T\u00eate<\/em> a \u201cmasterpiece,\u201d Phillips deputy chairman of the Americas and senior international specialist Jeremiah Evarts said in a statement, \u201cFresh to the market after over half a century in the same important private collection, T\u00eate<\/em> embodies everything that makes Modigliani\u2019s sculpture so revered, including its profound art historical importance.\u201d (The house did not identify who had previously owned the work, which last changed hands in 1972.)<\/p>\n T\u00eate<\/em> is not likely to become the most expensive Modligiani sculpture ever sold, however. In 2010, Christie\u2019s sold another stone head for $52.8 million, in what was then Modigliani\u2019s overall record. The same auction house sold another T\u00eate<\/em> in 2019 for $34.3 million.<\/p>\n \n\tModigliani\u2019s current record, it is worth noting, is far higher than the upper end of Phillips\u2019s estimate for its T\u00eate<\/em>. That benchmark stands at $170.4 million, as minted by the 2015 sale of his 1918 painting Nu couch\u00e9<\/em>, which remains one of the most expensive artworks ever brought to auction.<\/p>\n \n\tStill, Phillips is likely hoping to catch a wave of market interest in Modigliani evident in auctions staged over the past two years. In 2025, at Christie\u2019s in Paris, a portrait by the artist sold for $31.3 million, tripling its estimate and setting a new record for the artist in France. Then, earlier this year, a painting of a nude woman from the collection of Joe Lewis sold for $63.5 million at Sotheby\u2019s in London, creating a new record for Modigliani in Europe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/market\/phillips-amedeo-modigliani-sculpture-sale-1234801950\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Amedeo-Modigliani-Tete.jpg?w=1024″] With the hope of catching Modigliani momentum evident at auctions in Europe over the past couple years, Phillips is bringing a rare sculpture by the Italian-born modernist to the marquee New York sales in November with a hefty price tag. Modigliani\u2019s T\u00eate (1911\u201312) will hit the block with a $28 million\u2013$35 million […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2197028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2197028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197028\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2197028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2197028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2197028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}