Magnier’s art gamble nets a $130m profit
Fell short of $170m Modigliani record
HE’S known for his canny horse-racing credentials but it seems John Magnier has also mastered the art of selling paintings at a profit – as the billionaire businessman has made $130million (€110million) on one art investment.
The Cork-born horse breeder and owner bought Amedeo Modigliani’s Nu Couche (Sur Le Côté Gauche) only 15 years ago for just over €27million.
The nude by the Italian artist was sold for more than $157million – €132million – at an auction in Sotheby’s in New York on Monday. This makes it the fourth most expensive painting ever to be sold by auction.
The $157million price agreed for Nu Couche was also the highest price of any work in the 274-yearold Sotheby’s history.
Mr Magnier, who is most famous for owning the world-renowned Coolmore Stud in Tipperary, bought Nu Couche in 2003. The painting was completed in 1917, and was also the largest painting of Modigliani’s career.
Modigliani shocked Europe at the turn of the 19th century with his series of nudes, and his exhibition at a Paris gallery was closed by police on its opening day.
Ahead of Monday night’s auction, the painting was given a $150million (€126million) price tag – the highest estimate ever put on a work of art at auction.
It broke the previous $140million record for an estimate, held by Picasso’s Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’), from 2015.
The record for a work actually sold at auction still stands with Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, which went under the hammer for $450million last year.
Mr Magnier famously fell out with former friend and Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson over the racehorse Rock Of Gibraltar in the early 2000s. After gifting the then football manager a 50% share of it, Mr Magnier later pulled rank on the animal’s breeding rights.
Ferguson believed 50% ownership entitled him to 50% of the speedy steed’s earning as a stallion which could have netted the Scot more than €100million. He instigated a court case against Mr Magnier, which infuriated the racing tycoon. Mr Magnier later joined forces with JP McManus to build up a 28.9% stake in United before selling out to the club’s current owners, the Glazer family.
The $130million increase in price for the artwork in just 15 years reflects the soaring prices at the art market’s highest echelons. However, it’s believed that only a handful of collectors at most bid for the work, which fell short of the $170.4million record for a Modigliani, set in 2015.