This 24 April 2018 Sotheby’s video says about itself:
Discover Nu couché (sur le côté gauche), Amedeo Modigliani’s greatest painting from his legendary series of nudes. Upon their debut in 1917, these striking and sensual images stopped traffic and prompted the police to close the show. Today the series is recognized as one of the seminal achievements in Modern painting, giving new life to what is perhaps the most classic art form.The majority of the reclining nudes are exhibited in Museums, such as the Guggenheim or MoMA, and Nu couché (sur le côté gauche) was most recently featured as the star of Tate Modern’s Modigliani Retrospective. Nu couché has the highest estimate ever placed on a work of art at auction and will be the centerpiece of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale on 14 May in New York.
Read more here.
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (1884-1920) was a Jewish Italian painter and sculptor, who died in poverty. Like Vincent van Gogh, and so many other artists; off whom people who had not contributed a single drop of paint to their art became rich after their deaths.
Translated from Dutch NOS TV today:
The painting Nu couché (sur la côté de gauche) by the Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani has raised just over 157 million dollars at an auction at Sotheby’s in New York. It is the fourth highest price ever paid for an artwork at an auction, but it is not a record for Modigliani’s work (which stands at more than $ 170 million). …
The same painting changed hands in 2003 for $ 27 million.
The woman posing for this Modigliani painting is said to have been paid five french freanc a day.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
One can make a fortune in art if one knows how to do it. That is what capitalism is all about: The Art to make money. A tip being a painter is not a handicap. Monet did not die in the poor house.
LikeLike
A minority of now well known artists, like Monet, was better off than the other now well known artists.
However, even with these relatively lucky artists, the overwhelming part of the money made on their art, was not for the artists themsaellves, but for businessmen who had not contributed anything.
See the Top 10 of the 10 most expensive works of art:
https://dearkitty1.wordpress.com/2006/12/24/vincent-van-goghs-birthday-in-2005-art-and-money/
LikeLike
Pingback: Armenian French singer Charles Aznavour, RIP | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Painter van Gogh’s last years, new film | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Velvet Buzzsaw, film on art and money | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: European Union witchhunt against Third World artists | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: Rembrandt’s paintings, money and new film reviewed | Dear Kitty. Some blog