Giacometti sculpture sells for record $104 mn

Sotheby's says the sale of the bronze sculpture set a world record for the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction.

A bronze sculpture of a man by Alberto Giacometti has sold for USD 104.3 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 Wednesday for about ten bidders to reach the hammer price for “L’Homme Qui Marche I” (Walking Man I),which opened at 12 million pounds,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.

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Sotheby’s had estimated the work would sell for between 12 to 18 million pounds.

The sale price trumped the USD 104.17 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 USD 100 million barrier was broken.

“It’s a phenomenal result … I think the result pretty much reflects the depth of the market,” Helena Newman,a specialist of Impressionist and Modern art at Sotheby’s,told the BBC.

The price for the sculpture went up rapidly with keen interest from bidders calling in from Europe,Asia and the US,Newman said.

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