Giacometti sets record for work of art at auction at $104.3 M

The entire blogsphere is buzzing about Giacometti's auction sale's record set by “Walking Man I.” The much sought-after sculpture was sold to an unidentified telephone bidder for £65 million ($92.5 million), or $104.3 million with fees, at Sotheby’s in London Wednesday night. The record had been previously been set by Picasso at $104.1 million, paid for “Boy With a Pipe (The Young Apprentice)" from 1905, at Sotheby’s in New York in 2004.

Sotheby’s had originally expected the sculpture to fetch $19.2 million to $28.8 million based on previous Giacometti auction sales. The $104.3 million was more than three times the record for a Giacometti, which was set at Christie’s New York in 2008 with“Standing Woman II” from 1959-60 which sold for $27.4 million.

Sales such as this makes one wonder: recession, what recession? In a time in which arts funding is taking such a huge blow internationally, nationally and at a state-level auction sales records are broken! Could this sale be seen as the sign for better times to come?


Feb. 3, 2009: WSJ: Sotheby's Sells Giacometti for Record $104.3 Million
Feb. 3, 2009: NYT: At London Sale, a Giacometti Sets a Record

Image: Alberto Giacometti, Walking Man I, 1960, bronze, 72 x 10 3/16 x 37 9/16 in [Sotheby's]