To the average Joe, Alberto Giacometti's bronze sculpture of a walking man might not look all that phenomenal, but to the trained artistic eye, it's a masterpiece. Quite an expensive masterpiece, we might add, because it was just auctioned off for $104.3 million at Sotheby's, making it the single most costly piece of art ever sold at an auction.
The sculpture was created in 1961 as one of six in the Swiss artist's series. "L'homme qui marche 1 (Walking Man 1)" went to an anonymous phone bidder only eight minutes into the auction, shocking auctioneers and those in attendance.
- "We knew that there was going to be a lot of demand for this great piece of art, but we were really amazed," said Melanie Clore, deputy chairman of Sotheby's.
"We knew that this was an incredibly important and rare masterpiece and probably one of the most important sculptures of the 21st century."
Giacometti sculpting the piece in question.
The previous record price for art sold at an auction was $104.1 million for Picasso's "Garcon a la Pipe." In the end, it was quite a good night for the auction house, especially because they sold a piece by Gustav Klimt for $43 million, the highest price paid for a landscape painting.
Guess we aren't all hurting for money these days. We're not ones to tell people how to spend their money but - imagine all the food, clean water, shelter, education, vaccines and medical research that money could provide. Can you imagine spending $104.3 million dollars on a piece of art?
via CNN
