| Over $104 Million Paid For Giacometti’s L’Homme qui Marche I |
 Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti's sculpture, L’Homme qui Marche I (Walking Man I) became the most expensive piece of art ever to be sold at an auction when it went under the hammer for a record $104.3million at a London auction recently. Bids for the bronze statue, a twentieth century work of art entitled Walking Man I, opened at $19million. Sotheby, who auctioned the piece, commented that the statue is the most expensive work of art to be sold at an auction to date, and the winning bid of $104.3million was placed over the telephone. Walking Man I is one of the most important works by Swiss sculptor Giacometti who lived in the twentieth century, and the statue was estimated at $19millon - $28million, but the battle between a dozen bidders pushed the price up. According Georgina Adam, a journalist specializing in arts, the reason for this high price is that Giacometti's sculptures are rare and they are rarely displayed at auctions for sale.
The statue created by Giacometti in 1961was expected to fetch anything between 12million-18mllion pounds sterling. Giacometti work seen off Spanish artist Pablo Picasso's painting Garcon à la Pipe (Boy with a Pipe) which previously held the record for the most expensive painting at $104.2million at an auction in New York in 2004. German Commerzbank had obtained the statue in 2009 when it acquired Dresdner Bank who had bought the statue in 1980. |
|