Christie's Paris evening sale closed Paris Art Week's biggest auction day with a €66.01 million ($74.12 million) total, according to results coverage published the same evening. The 22 October sale at 9 Avenue Matignon, which folded in the house's 'Thinking Italian' section for the fourth year running, landed within expectations, and 79 percent of lots sold above their low estimates.

The top lot was Lucio Fontana's 1961 Concetto spaziale, Mezzogiorno in Piazza S. Marco, which brought $7.65 million. Works by Frank Kupka were also among the lots that exceeded their low estimates, underlining the depth of bidding across the post-war and Italian sections of the sale.

The result capped a remarkable Thursday for the Paris market. Earlier in the day, Christie's own Durand-Ruel single-owner sale totalled €41.6 million, while across town Sotheby's Schlumberger evening sale made €74.4 million, led by Claude Monet's Iris at €50 million — the highest price ever paid for an artwork at auction in France.

Christie’s moved its 'Thinking Italian' sale from London to Paris in 2022, and the 2026 edition confirms the format’s strength in the French capital. With the day sales concluding on 23 October, the house’s Paris season closes as one of the strongest of the Art Basel Paris week, before the 20/21 calendar moves to New York in November. The evening sale was preceded by the Durand-Ruel afternoon auction and followed by the 23 October day sales, marking the close of Christie's October season in Paris. The strong showing alongside the Sotheby's record night underlines how Paris has consolidated its autumn position during Art Basel Paris week.