Modigliani sold to Russian buyer

Modigliani’s Portrait of Picasso, 1915, currently on view in “Modigliani and His Models” at the Royal Academy in London (until 15 October), has been bought by a Russian collector in the last 12 months. Last year it was described as a loan from Galerie Schmidt, Paris, when it was shown at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. Now it is described by the Royal Academy as on loan from a “private collection in Moscow”. Manuel Schmidt, the director of Galerie Schmidt, confirms that the painting was sold to a Russian client in November last year. “It was a new client, but that’s all I can say, and I can’t tell you the price,” Mr Schmidt says. The highest price made at auction for a male portrait by Modigliani is $3.1m, paid for Portrait of Paul Guillaume, 1916, at Christie’s New York in November 1996.