Giacometti statue sells for £65m at auction
L'Homme qui marche I
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Thursday, 04, Feb 2010 10:52
By Sarah Garrod.
An Alberto Giacometti statue, the picture of which features on a Swiss bank note, has sold at auction for a record-breaking £65,001,250.
Perceived to be one of the most iconic images of modern art, L'Homme qui marche I is a life-size sculpture of a man, which sold for more than five-times its opening bid at the auction house Sotheby's.
The final price places the sculpture as the most expensive ever sold at auction, breaking the previous record held by a Pablo Picasso work in 2004. It had been estimated the state would reach between £12m and £18m, Sotheby's said.
Giacometti's statue was finally bought by an anonymous phone bidder, who bought the work for £58 million, with the final price including the buyer's premium.
In the catalogue notes at the auction, Sotheby's described the record-breaking piece as: "An undisputed masterpiece of Giacometti's sculpture, L'Homme qui marche I is also one of the most iconic images of Modern art.
"It represents the pinnacle of Giacometti's experimentation with the human form, combining a monumental, imposing size with a rich rendering of the surface. Capturing a transient moment in the figure's movement, Giacometti created both a humble image of an ordinary man, and a potent symbol of humanity."