World's Most Expensive 'Weird' Sculptures
The auction house duopoly Christie's and Sotheby's, brought sellers and buyers together for centuries to compete with bidding wars. Some of the major auctions set records for different artists in a single night, though the art market experienced ups and downs with the wider economy.
Here are some of the items that has been the most expensive sculptures ever to sell at an auction, according to CNN:
'L'Homme au doigt' by Alberto Giacometti
"L'Homme au doigt" by Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti was auctioned for $141.3m at Christie's in New York City on May 11, 2015, setting the record for most expensive sculpture sold at an auction. https://t.co/NGgoVNnSCa pic.twitter.com/C0yQrRw72b
— Trivia Encyclopedia (@edpearce080759) May 11, 2018
The six-foot-tall bronze painted sculpture of a man pointing was on the market in 1970. The sculpture was sold in Christie's New York in 2015 at the price of $141.3 million. According to the New York Times, Steven A. Cohen, hedge fund billionaire, bought the world-class work, which experts know its other versions of the same sculpture in the holdings of London's Tate Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
'L'Homme qui marche I' by Alberto Giacometti
.@alykhansatchu L'Homme qui marche I (The Walking Man I), by Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966), is a bronze-cast sculpture of a 6 foot tall man, mid-stride https://t.co/FJWEvJASiv pic.twitter.com/dM9gaCj9Ye
— Rich TvAfrica (@RichTvAfrica) June 28, 2019
In 2010, L'Homme qui marche l was sold in Sotheby's auction to Lily Safra, a billionaire philanthropist at the price of $104.3 million, as per Bloomberg News.
Albert Giacometti is best known for his elongated representations of the human form, including 'L 'Homme qui marche I' which means in english "Walking Man I. Giacometti experimented with Surrealism and Cubism on forms of primitive art, toys, and psychoanalytic theory. He also had a radical revision of the representational tradition in sculpture, as per Artsy.
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'Chariot' by Alberto Giacometti
Steven A. Cohen proved his love for sculptures as he also has this worth $101 million item by Alberto Giacometti. 'Chariot' was sold in Sotheby's New York in 2014.
In 1984, Sotheby's sold the same version of the sculpture for about $1.4 million. The sculpture fetched the second-highest price for a Giacomettu, and the second-highest ever for a sculpture sold in an auction.
'Rabbit' by Jeff Koons
The father of Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, Robert Mnuchin bid on behalf of Steven A. Cohen, bought the sculpture 'Rabbit' by Jeff Koons worth $91 million in May 2019.
The Victorian painting portraying two women in love lost in history. During the 1980s, the painting was created by an artist who previously was a stockbroker, an exact copy of the inflatable toy exemplifies a whole body of work,but others say it's an arch commentary on consumer culture.
'La jeune fille sophistiquée (Portrait de Nancy Cunard) by Constantin Brancusi
#AuctionUpdate ‘La jeune fille sophistiquée (Portrait de Nancy Cunard)’ by Constantin Brancusi sold for $71,000,000, a new #WorldAuctionRecord for the artist!https://t.co/xza5EjtDhN pic.twitter.com/jyBiZnyAFJ
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) May 15, 2018
In 2018, 'La jeune fille sophistiquée was sold for $71.2 million in Christie's New York. the piece had been off the market since 195. The seller bought it directly from the artist and sold it to the second person to own the piece.
According to Christie's catalog, Cunard said, "There was one (sculpture) in wood, the other in bronze, both utterly unlike what I take to be my 'line,' but exquisite things."
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