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A sculpture by Giacometti fetched £65m at Sotheby’s in London this month to become the most expensive artwork ever to sell at auction. What does this say about the state of the art market?
It took just eight minutes for history to be made at Sotheby’s sale of Impressionist & Modern Art in London on February 3: bidding for Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture, “L’Homme qui marche I”, started at £12m with at least 10 prospective buyers interested; at £20m five bidders remained; New York private dealer Nancy Whyte dropped out at £23m and Monte-Carlo based trader David Nahmad at £24m; that left Sotheby’s expert Philip Hook and its Chief Executive Bill Ruprecht on the phone to two anonymous telephone bidders who trashed it out until the hammer price of £58m, or £65,001,250 with the buyer’s premium included. The tightly packed room burst into applause for the most expensive work of art ever to sell at auction.
The sale of Giacometti’s 1961 sculpture is record breaking on several levels. As well as being the most expensive piece of art to sell at auction (a position previously held by Pablo Picasso’s 1906 portrait "Boy With a Pipe" which sold for $104.2m in 2004), it is also the most expensive sculpture ever to be sold either at auction or privately (surpassing the 5000-year-old Guennol Lioness which sold at Sotheby’s in 2007 for $57.2m). It marks a new era not just for the art market in general but in particular for sculpture.
Perhaps the most astonishing fact about the price of “L’Homme qui marche I” is that it is not a unique piece. It is the second cast in a numbered edition of six plus four artist’s proofs (the sculptures had originally been commissioned by Chase Manhattan bank for its New York headquarters but Giacometti decided not to finish the project).
Two of the other casts of of “L’Homme qui marche I” can be found in the permanent collection of Fondation Maeght in St. Paul-de-Vence, France. Not surprisingly, Yoyo Maeght, the foundation’s director whose grandfather was the dealer of Giacometti and acquired the sculptures directly from the artist, is thrilled with the price achieved by “L’Homme qui marche I”.
“The market forever dictated the choices of the Maeght family, but when the market validates the choices, passions and convictions of Maeght, I can only be moved,” said Yoyo Maeght immediately after the sale. “Will visitors still be able to enjoy looking at this record-breaking work with the same simplicity? Yes, the glance is spontaneous; that is the magic of the Maeght Foundation.”
The Sotheby’s catalogue described the “L’Homme qui marche I” as, “an undisputed masterpiece of Giacometti's sculpture,” and “one of the most iconic images of Modern art”. Though its comment that the work is “a humble image of an ordinary man” is at odds with its stratospheric price.
Who bought “L’Homme qui marche I” is the topic of fevered speculation within the art market. Russian and Middle Eastern collectors in particular are known to admire the lean, blank-face sculptures that are the signature works of Giacometti, but the names of Georgian and Ukrainian billionaires have also been mentioned. Roman Abramovich, who bought one of the artist's 1956 bronze figures of a woman at Art Basel in 2008, has denied he is the buyer.
What the art world does agree on is that the sale is not necessarily confirmation that the art market has recovered from its recent slump, nor has does it herald a return to its 2007 peak. Indeed, it was the determination of just two bidders that pushed the price above £24m. As New York art dealer Marc Glimcher told the Wall Street Journal: “Above $50m, the fight for any artwork goes from love to a grudge match.” On February 3, Giacometti’s “L’Homme qui marche I” was the ultimate prize.
Where to see the work of Alberto Giacometti
An exhibition devoted to Aimé Maeght in Ferrara, Italy, will include a cast of “L’Homme qui marche I”.
February 28 to June 2, 2010
Ferrara Mostre e Musei
www.palazzodiamanti.it
An exhibition of the collection of the Fondation Alberto and Annette Giacometti Paris at the Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum Center of International Sculpture, Duisburg, is currently on show.
Januar 31 to April 18, 2010
Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum Center of International Sculpture, Duisburg
www.lulembruckmuseum.de
Other casts of L'Homme qui marche I can be seen at the institutions below:
• Carnegie Institute Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (Edition No. 1).
• Fondation Maeght, St. Paul-de-Vence (there are two casts in this collection).
• The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo.
More info:
http://catalogue.sothebys.com/events/L10002