Sotheby's Sets a Record for Any Work of Art Ever Sold At Auction - $104.33 million (£65 million)

Sotheby's Sets a Record for Any Work of Art Ever Sold At Auction

Alberto Giacometti’s L’homme qui marche I (Walking Man I)

Sells for a Record-Breaking £65,001,250 / $104,327,006

Gustav Klimt’s Kirche in Cassone (Church in Casssone) sells for £26,921,250 / $43,208,606

Setting a new auction record for a landscape by the artist

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2010 -- Tonight at Sotheby’s, Alberto Giacometti’s L’homme qui marche I sold for £65,001,250 / $104,327,006 becoming the most expensive art work ever sold at auction.  The bronze sculpture exceeded the previous record of $104.1 million (£58,052,830) also set at Sotheby’s in May 2004 by Pablo Picasso’s Garçon à la Pipe.   

The expectant saleroom fell quiet as bidding opened at £12 million.  Some eight minutes later, after a fast and furious bidding battle between at least ten prospective purchasers, this spectacular piece - the only life-time cast of this iconic subject ever to have come to auction - sold to an anonymous telephone bidder, establishing a new record price not only for the artist, and for any piece of sculpture ever sold at auction but also, and more importantly, taking its place in history as the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction.  

Formerly part of the corporate collection of Dresdner Bank AG, the sculpture came into the possession of Commerzbank AG after the latter’s takeover of Dresdner Bank in 2009.  Commerzbank intends to use the sale proceeds to strengthen the resources of its new Foundation Centre, and also to provide funds to partner museums for restoration work and educational programmes.

The second story of this evening’s sale was Gustav Klimt’s beautiful, jewel-like Kirche in Cassone , an intensely powerful work charged with historical significance, which attracted four bidders who together took the final price to £26,921,250 / $43,208,606, a new auction record for a landscape by the artist, and a price well in excess of the pre-sale estimate of £12-18 million.  The painting was purchased by an anonymous buyer on the telephone.

Once part of one of the greatest early collections of Klimt’s work - that of the Austro-Hungarian iron magnate and collector Victor Zuckerkandl and his wife Paula - the work went missing in Vienna during the Nazi period and only resurfaced decades later. It was offered for sale tonight pursuant to an agreement between Georges Jorisch, the now 81-year old great nephew of the original owner, and the European private collector in whose family the painting had been for several years. Georges Jorisch said: “Today’s sale closes a long-open chapter in my life in which I recover a part of my forbears’ legacy and pass it on to future generations, just as my parents would have wished.” 

Melanie Clore, Co-Chairman, Impressionist & Modern Art, Sotheby’s Worldwide, comments: “We are thrilled to have sold these great works this evening and that they have been recognised for the masterpieces that they are.  The competition which generated these exceptional results demonstrates the continued quest for quality that compels today’s collectors.”

The sale is still in progress and more details will follow shortly.