The painting "Leda and the Swan" promises to be one of the top-лотов auction of postwar and contemporary art Christie's may 17, in new-Йорке

In 1961, CY Twombly created in Rome, the cycle of Ferragosto (Italian holiday of the assumption). Then, in the early 1960-х, he wrote two large works on the theme of the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan, which I consider a logical continuation of the cycle of Ferragosto. These are full of cruelty and eroticism of the work relates to the style of "blood and foam" that dominated the work of CY Twombly until 1966.

Today, one of the paintings "Leda and the Swan" is decorated with a permanent exhibition of the MOMA and is one of the most popular exhibits in the Museum. For the second "Leda" for decades were hunted by collectors all over the world, but since its writing, the work changed only two owners. The last time it was sold in the early 1990-х, and since then Twombly painting has never participated in exhibitions (i.e. about 25 years not appeared in public). But at the auction the second "Leda and the Swan" was never, so in may it may happen, and a new personal auction record. Especially right now in the Centre Pompidou is Europe's first Grand retrospective of CY Twombly.

To date, the most expensive work of CY Twombly — "untitled (new-Йорк)" in 1968, sold at auction in November 2015 for $70.5 million (15-е place in our ranking of the world's artists).

the Material was prepared by Maria Onuchina, AI

Sources: christies.com, artnews.com, artinvestment.ru