Christie’s London is auctioning Tamara de Lempicka’s 1928 painting *Portrait du Docteur Boucard*, which has not been seen on the market in 40 years. The work, depicting doctor and bacteriologist Pierre Boucard, is expected to sell for between £5 million and £8 million ($6.18 million and $9.89 million). The sale coincides with the close of Lempicka’s historic retrospective at San Francisco’s de Young Museum—the first U.S. survey of the Art Deco master—and ahead of its opening at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.
The auction underscores Lempicka’s surging market, with her top six sales all occurring in the last seven years and her record rising nearly 150 percent since 2018. The painting of a male sitter could set a new record for that category, reflecting growing collector interest in the artist’s distinctive style and the “female gaze.” The sale also taps into the momentum generated by the museum retrospective, a Broadway show, and a Sotheby’s selling exhibition, cementing Lempicka’s renewed cultural and commercial relevance.