Stolen Art DealerArt Deco oil portrait of a woman with wavy blond hair looking back over her bare shoulder, with red lips and nails, wrapped in crisp white and grey satin drapery between grey columns; one hand rests on the folds and the other reaches down to a ledge, wearing a large round cabochon ring.
Tap to zoom
Catalogue No. 09 · Christie’s · London
Portrait of Marjorie Ferry
Sold for
$21.2million
Christie’s, London · 5 February 2020 · 103rd of 392 in the Record Book
Confirmed by two sourcesAbout $27.6 million in today’s money: 320 years of the typical US household’s income. Source
- Artist
- Tamara de Lempicka (Polish-born, 1898–1980)
- Title
- Portrait of Marjorie Ferry (Portrait de Marjorie Ferry)
- Date
- 1932
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Size
- 100 × 65 cm (39⅜ × 25⅝ in)
Look closer
The cabochon ring
A large round cabochon ring sits on the sitter’s hand. Christie’s says her husband gave it to her, and Apollo reads it as an engagement ring.
Listen to the story
The narration from our Reel, about a minute long.
Read the narration
It sold for about half a million. In nineteen ninety-five. Tamara de Lempicka painted Marjorie Ferry, a British-born cabaret singer in Paris, in nineteen thirty-two. Christie's says her wealthy financier husband gave her a huge ring. Then he commissioned this portrait that year, to show it off. Her family kept it until nineteen ninety-five, when fashion designer Wolfgang Joop bought it. He sold it in two thousand nine for about four point nine million dollars, then a Lempicka record. In February twenty twenty, it went up at Christie's London. Sold… for twenty-one point two million dollars. A new record for Lempicka. It beat her own record, set about twelve weeks earlier. As of October twenty twenty-six, that record stands, as far as public sources show. Half a million, then twenty-one point two million dollars. Same painting.
Marjorie Ferry was a British-born cabaret singer in Paris. Christie’s says her wealthy financier husband gave her a large cabochon ring and commissioned this portrait from Tamara de Lempicka in 1932. Look for the ring on her hand.
Her family kept the painting until 1995, when it sold at Sotheby’s New York for about half a million dollars. The fashion designer Wolfgang Joop bought it there and owned it until 2009, when it made about $4.9 million at Sotheby’s New York, then a Lempicka record.
On 5 February 2020 it went up at Christie’s London against an estimate of £8–12 million. An unnamed telephone bidder bought it for £16,380,000, or $21.2 million, including the buyer’s premium. That beat her own record, set about twelve weeks earlier by La Tunique rose at $13.4 million.
From about half a million dollars to $21.2 million is roughly forty times in 25 years, for one painting. As of October 2026, no higher Lempicka price has been reported.
The sale
- Auction house
- Christie’s, London
- Date
- 5 February 2020
- Lot
- 8
- Estimate
- £8–12 million
- Sold for
- $21.2 million (including buyer’s premium) · £16,380,000
Test your eye on the market: set your estimates
Provenance
1932
Marjorie Ferry of Paris acquired the portrait from the artist; according to the Sotheby’s 2009 catalogue, her financier husband commissioned it.
1932–1995
Passed by descent in the sitter’s family. Shown in Paris at the Salon des Tuileries in 1932 and at Galerie du Cygne in 1934. Reported
9 November 1995
Sold at Sotheby’s New York (lot 250) for about half a million dollars.
1995–2009
Owned by the German fashion designer Wolfgang Joop, who acquired it at the 1995 sale.
5 May 2009
Sold by Joop at Sotheby’s New York (lot 24) for about $4.9 million, then a Lempicka record.
2009–2020
Held by an unnamed buyer; reportedly consigned in 2020 by a European collector. Reported
5 February 2020
Sold at Christie’s London (lot 8) for £16,380,000 including premium, to an unnamed telephone bidder.
See it on a wall
Sources
- Sotheby’s New York, May 2009: lot 24 (provenance, exhibitions, literature)
- The Art Newspaper: And all that jazz (6 February 2020)
- HENI: The Portrait That Set Tamara de Lempicka’s Auction Record
- Apollo: The siren call of Tamara de Lempicka’s portrait of a cabaret singer
Prices include the buyer’s premium, in US dollars at the time of sale, unless marked as a hammer price.