Sotheby’s Gets the Gold for Selling Bronze
Alberto Giacometti’s “L’homme qui marche 1 (Walking Man 1)” sold at Sotheby’s for a record $104.3 million, making it the most expensive artwork ever sold at an auction, despite it being an edition of six. The buyer of the slim, bronze gentleman is a mystery, like most of Sotheby’s anonymous bidders from the gilded percentile that patron the art market, Economic Armageddon regardless.
Also, Gustav Klimt’s “Kirch in Cassone“ was sold for $43 million—most ever for a landscape—after being baby-sat by the Nazis for awhile, making it extra rare and valuable. Explaining the night’s total jackpot of $235 million, deputy chairman of Sotheby’s Melanie Clore credited “the serious people” with resolve: “When they see these pieces of art they fall in love… just as they would fall in love with a person.” Yes, a person that you can buy, strap onto your wall and show off to all your swanky friends… Kinky. |CNN|
Editor-in-Chief:
PS Inflation is a funny thing (or, actually, not so funny, since it chews away at the value of money, pushes innocent families into the Alternative Minimum Tax, etc.).
Van Gogh's "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" sold for an inflation-adjusted $135 million at Christie's in 1990, making it the most expensive artwork sold at auction.
Glad to see you on the art beat at Animal, Marina. You bring a touch of class (How did they pronounce that on "Jersey Shore"? "Klayss"?) to this otherwise sordid undertaking.
I see what you did there: “…strap on (-to your wall)…” Between this comment and your vagina art yesterday, Marina, you’re starting to attract my attention.