The painting “Construction” by Maria Helena Vieira da Silva was sold by Christie’s auction house in Paris for 245 thousand euros, according to the results of the auction.
The 1968 work was put up for auction with an estimate of 200 to 300 thousand euros.
The painting measures 1.27 by 1.13 meters and is signed and dated by the artist. It comes from a European collection after being acquired from the Applicat-Prazan gallery in Paris and was auctioned in person on Wednesday.
According to a statement released today by Christie’s, the painting was offered in one of two contemporary art auctions this week (the second was held online), both totaling €10.7 million.
Vieira da Silva appeared as part of a group of works created by women, along with Germaine Richier, Etel Adnan and Anna-Eva Bergman.
In July 2020, the oil painting “Tours d’Arme”, created in the same year by a Portuguese artist, was presented among works of art of the 20th century at the international Christie’s auction with an estimate of 600 thousand to 800 thousand. euro, but it was never sold.
In 2018, another work by Vieira da Silva, L’Incendie 1, was sold in London by the same auction house for a record sum for the artist of 2.290 million euros.
Painted in 1944, it started with a base estimate of €1.2 million to €1.6 million.
Vieira da Silva was born in Lisbon in 1908 and moved to the French capital when she was 19 to study during a period of great creative activity, eventually settling in the city where she died in 1992.