Click photo to enlarge
People surround the only life-time cast of The Walking Man
sculpture by Alberto Giacometti ever to come to auction.
(AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
A life-size bronze sculpture of a man by Alberto
Giacometti was sold today at a London auction for £65
million ($NZ149.3 million) - making it the most expensive
work of art ever sold at auction, Sotheby's auction house said.
It took just eight minutes of furious bidding for about ten
bidders to reach the hammer price for "L'Homme Qui Marche I"
(Walking Man I), which opened at £12 million, Sotheby's said.
The sculpture by the 20th century Swiss artist, considered an
iconic Giacometti work as well as one of the most
recognisable images of modern art, was sold to an anonymous
bidder by telephone, the auction house said.
Sotheby's had estimated the work would sell for between £12
to £18 million.
The sale price trumped the $NZ149.1 million paid at a 2004
New York auction for Pablo Picasso's 1905 "Boy With a Pipe
(The Young Apprentice)." That painting broke the record that
Vincent van Gogh had held since 1990, and its sale was the
first time that the $US100 million barrier was broken.
"L'Homme Qui Marche I," a life-size sculpture of a thin and
wiry human figure standing 183 centimeters tall , "represents
the pinnacle of Giacometti's experimentation with the human
form" and is "both a humble image of an ordinary man, and a
potent symbol of humanity," Sotheby's said.
The work was cast in 1961, in the artist's mature period. It
is rare because it was the only cast of the walking man made
during Giacometti's lifetime that has ever come to auction,
Sotheby's said. It was bought by Dresdner Bank in the early
1980s.
The last time a Giacometti of comparable size was offered at
auction was 20 years ago. That sculpture was sold for $US6.82
million, a record for Giacometti works at the time.
