An unwavering advocate for modern art and press freedom, Niomar Moniz Sodré Bittencourt was a woman of spirit and resistance who played a critical role in the growth of the Brazilian art scene. With minimal resources but unrelenting resolve, she founded the Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro in 1955—Brazil’s first institution dedicated to contemporary art—staking a claim for cultural freedom at a time when it was most fragile.
On April 10, Sotheby’s Paris paid tribute to her legacy with the sale of her remarkable collection, which brought in €11,376,285. The 70-lot auction spanned international modernist icons—Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso, Nicolas de Staël, Jean Dubuffet—alongside pioneering Brazilian and South American artists such as Maria Martins, Almir Da Silva Mavignier, Franz Krajcberg, Jesús Rafael Soto and Antonio Segui. Most works met or exceeded their estimates, proving again that provenance and a sharp narrative are often the real stars of single-owner auctions.
SEE ALSO: Laurent Asscher’s AMA VENEZIA Is Venice’s Newest Contemporary Art Hub
Among the standout results, Giacometti’s haunting Femme Debout (c. 1952) brought in €4.9 million, soaring past its €2.5-4 million estimate. Acquired directly from the artist the year it was created, the sculpture distills Giacometti’s existential vision—a human form as a spectral silhouette, reduced to bare presence yet charged with a primal force of presence.
Another highlight was Picasso’s early Femme nue à la guitare, painted in 1909 during his final stretch at the Bateau-Lavoir, and hints of the cubist rupture are already visible. Once held by Kahnweiler, Breton and Matisse, the painting sold for €1,506,500, comfortably within its €1.2-1.8 million estimate.
A committed supporter of her contemporaries, Niomar Moniz Sodré Bittencourt often acquired works straight from the studio. That was the case with Nicolas de Staël’s Étude pour le Parc des Princes, a sensuous and seemingly abstract composition painted in 1952 and characterized by thick, textured brushstrokes organized in clusters suggesting primordial figures or traces. At Sotheby’s, the painting sold for nearly double its high estimate, hammering for €889,000 over the expected €300,000-500,000 range. Jean Dubuffet’s Instance (1965), part of his groundbreaking Hourloupe cycle, brought €355,600—just skimming past the €350,000 top estimate. With its intricate web of red, white and blue forms, the work hails from one of the most market-savvy moments of Dubuffet’s oeuvre, though this result suggested only modest heat.
By contrast, Max Ernst’s Les Fiancés—a bleak, enigmatic hybrid of Dada breakdowns and fresh Surrealist urges, all bathed in a sour green haze—was perhaps too cryptic for comfort, landing at €241,300 to barely clear its low bar. As a testament to the intellectual curiosity and international taste of the collector, the sale also featured works by Japanese pioneering artist Tetsumi Kudo, who has been recently subject to rediscovery encouraged by a show at Hauser & Wirth. One of his signature paradoxical caged assemblages, Love Story, sold for €69,850.
On the Brazilian front, Maria Martins’ Guerreiro, an organically surreal bronze by one of Brazil’s most acclaimed sculptors, smashed its €80,000–120,000 estimate, selling for €279,400. Martins not only shaped the collector’s taste but also introduced her to Duchamp and Guggenheim, linking her to the broader currents of 20th-century art.
Another result worth mentioning is Maria Helena Vieira da Silva’s intricate 14 juillet (1908-1992), a woven matrix of geometric abstraction that sold just above estimate for €184,150. Subject to a recent surge of attention, which will likely be further fueled by the show that just opened at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice and is set to travel to the Guggenheim Bilbao this fall.
The Lady of Resistance’s relentless fight for cultural freedom
Close to many of the greatest artists of her time, Niomar Moniz Sodré Bittencourt assembled a collection that reflected not just aesthetic acumen but a deep commitment to a vision of modernity that defied pre-established systems and values. More than a discerning art collector, she was also a fearless journalist whose battles stretched far beyond the gallery walls. After the 1964 coup d’état ushered in two decades of military dictatorship in Brazil, Moniz Sodré Bittencourt took a frontline stance against authoritarianism as director of Correio da Manhã, one of the country’s most influential newspapers. She defended dissent and freedom of speech with unflinching clarity, even as the paper became a target of violent repression—bombed, threatened and surveilled. Her refusal to yield cost her dearly: she was imprisoned and ultimately exiled to Paris, where she continued her fight for press freedom and cultural sovereignty.
One of her most enduring legacies remains the founding of the Museu de Arte Moderna (MAM). In defiance of the Church, the government and a conservative Brazilian elite that viewed contemporary art as inaccessible or subversive, she forged ahead. With the backing of nelson rockefeller, then director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and close allies like Marcel Duchamp and Maria Martins, she secured international support. MAM officially opened its doors on January 27, 1958, housed in a modernist building designed by Affonso Eduardo Reidy and launching with a collection that spanned both Western and Brazilian masters. Many of the works were acquired from the artists themselves, a testament to Niomar Moniz Sodré Bittencourt’s stature in the art world.
Tragically, nearly 90 percent of this original collection was destroyed in a devastating fire in 1978—a loss followed by another blaze seven years later that consumed a large part of her personal collection in Rio. The surviving masterpieces that appeared at Sotheby’s this April stand as final witnesses to the richness of her vision and her tireless fight to carve out space for modernity, freedom and cultural resistance.
Single-owner sales are leading the Parisian Spring auctions
Moniz Sodré Bittencourt’s collection was a standout of Paris’ spring auction season, which brought in a combined $100 million across the three major houses, but not the only highlight. The mid-season Parisian sales saw all three auction houses betting on single-owner sales—a strategy that, with the right mix of storytelling and top-shelf consignments, delivered results that mostly hit or exceeded expectations.
Christie’s opened their sales with Ancienne collection Henri Canonne – Une leçon impressionniste, which brought the prestigious collection of Henri Canonne to the block. An avid collector with an avant-garde vision and a keen eye for impressionist masters, Canonne collected no less than forty paintings by Claude Monet, including seventeen water-lily paintings, along with other works by major names like Signac, Cézanne, Utrillo and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Of the latter, the auction featured a museum-quality painting linked to one hanging at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, La Leçon d’écriture, which sold within the estimate for €2,399,500, a major factor in the sale’s total of €5,367,000. The subsequent 20/21 Century Art – Evening Sale closed at Christie’s with a total of €30,750,200.
Amid the economic unease triggered by the tariff shock and uncertainty, these outcomes offered a glimmer of confidence ahead of New York’s marquee May auctions, now looming on the horizon.
<