Soviet sculptors at Sotheby's Christie's. The most expensive sculpture in the world

There are many reasons why a person packs his bags and goes on a trip. In most cases, this is a desire to take a break from everyone, relax and relieve stress. But there is also a desire to learn the traditions and culture of all corners of the world. People are usually attracted to landscapes, beaches, seas, castles and museums. However, even statues can become a symbol of the country. Together with painting, sculpture is one of the most amazing forms of art. It is not surprising that the value of some works exceeds all imaginable boundaries.

There are statues in the world that compete with each other to be the most attractive tourist attractions. People travel thousands of kilometers just to see them. Most of the statues are not in museums, but in the most unexpected places: On mountaintops, on small islands, or in private collections that are occasionally opened to the public.

10. Christ the Redeemer Statue, $3.5 million

Statue of Christ the Redeemer

Every year, approximately 1.8 million tourists come to Rio de Janeiro to see the famous Christ the Redeemer monument reaching out to embrace the beautiful beaches of Copacabana. The height of the statue is 38 m, including the pedestal - 8 m; arm span - 28 m. Weight - 1145 tons. The huge statue is considered one of modern miracles peace. Located on Mount Corcovado, the monument was created by the architect and engineer Heitor da Silva Costa. Construction lasted from 1922 to 1931. and then it cost 250 thousand dollars, now it would be 3.5 million.

9. Madame L.R.$36.8 million

Madame L.R.

Constantin Brancusi, who supports the modernist movement in art, is a representative of minimalism. Nevertheless, his works are always interesting to look at, because they look very original. Unlike the other statues presented in this review, Brancusi's work represents an entire concept. The sculpture was most likely born sometime between 1914 and 1917. Previously, the masterpiece belonged to fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent. In 2009, a 115 cm tall oak statue was sold in Paris for $36.8 million.

8. Statue of Liberty.$45 million

Statue of Liberty

Famous all over the world, the Statue of Liberty doesn't require much introduction. It is a symbol of freedom and democracy in the United States of America. It was created by the French and presented to the US government for the 100th anniversary of American independence. The unveiling of the Statue of Liberty took place on October 28, 1886. In her left hand, Lady Liberty holds the Declaration of Independence, and in her right hand, a torch symbolizing victory. The sculptor of the majestic statue is Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. His source of inspiration was the Colossus of Rhodes, dedicated to the Sun God. On the head of the Statue of Liberty there is a crown with seven rays, which symbolize the seven continents. The giant steel structure on which the statue sits was designed by famous engineer Gustave Eiffel. At that time, the cost of the statue was $250,000. The funds spent on its construction were raised through contributions French people. Today the cost of the statue is $45 million. Weight is 225 tons.

7. Tete.$52.6 million

Tete

Created by sculptor Amedeo Modigliani between 1910 and 1912, Tete is the most expensive limestone statue. On June 14, 2010, it was purchased by an anonymous collector through a phone call. Literally the word "Tete" means "head". The sculpture depicts the face of a woman wearing a tribal mask with her hair flowing back. When creating his masterpiece, Modigliani was clearly inspired by African symbolism. More than 60 cm in height, the sculpture features an interesting mixture of elements belonging to African culture and the minimalist approach of Constantin Brancusi.

6. Grande tete mince, $53.3 million

Grande tete mince

The famous "Grande tete mince" by Alberto Giacometti was created in 1954 and purchased by an anonymous collector on May 4, 2010 for $53.3 million. Literally, the name of the statue means "large narrow head." If you look at the sculpture under certain angle, the bust appears distorted. When you look at half the face, the proportions seem normal, but if you look at the head from the foreground, the face looks abnormally narrow and long.

5. Buddha of the Spring Temple.$55 million

Spring Temple Buddha

Currently, the Spring Temple Buddha is considered the tallest statue in the world. It is not as famous as the others presented in the review, but it deservedly takes pride of place among modern wonders. Its height without a stand is 128 meters, and with a stand - 153 meters. It was built in response to the demolition of Buddha statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan by the Taliban in 2001. China continues to condemn the systematic demolition and destruction of Buddhist heritage throughout Afghanistan. The construction of the miracle statue was completed in 2008. It is twice the height of the Statue of Liberty, made of copper and depicts Vairokana Buddha. It is located in the village of Zhaocun in Henan Province, in the heart of China. The cost of the statue is $55 million.

4. Lioness Guennola.$57.2 million

Lioness Guennola

Historians claim that the Guennola lioness is over 5,000 years old. The author of the sculpture is unknown; it belongs to the heritage of the Mesopotamian civilization of Elam. The sculpture is very small, only 3.2 cm in height. It was discovered near Baghdad (Iraq). The sculpture depicts a hybrid creature as human traits intertwined with animals, more precisely with the features of a lioness. Historians and art historians believe that the sculpture was made at the time when man invented the wheel and began building the first settlements. In addition, the lioness is a symbol of Mesopotamian culture. The statue was purchased on December 5, 2007 by an anonymous collector for $57.2 million, making it the most expensive antique sculpture.

3. “For the love of God”: $100 million

"For the Love of God"

The most modern statue in the review. A strange combination of platinum, a human skull, diamonds and human teeth to express the love of God. The work belongs to contemporary artist Damien Hirst. The sculptor received inspiration for the creation of the statue from a 200-year-old turquoise Aztec skull. The skull is cast in platinum, decorated with real human teeth and diamonds, the total weight of which is 1106 carats. It was created in 2007 and sold the same year for $100 million.

2. L'Homme qui marche.$104.3 million

L'Homme qui marche

Sold at Sotheby's on February 3, 2010, the statue of L "Homme Qui Marche is the most expensive statue ever sold. Sculptor Alberto Giacometti in 1961 created a masterpiece that represents a life-size man. Height - 1.82 meters. Title "L "Homme Qui Marche" literally means "the man who walks". The bronze statue symbolizes human strength. A person with feelings, happy and sad memories walks through life, trying to maintain balance. Not only is it the most expensive sculpture ever sold. The Giacometti statue is also one of the most expensive works of art in human history. In 2010, Lily Safra, an avid art collector, paid $104.3 million for it.

1. Mount Rushmore.$11 billion

Mount Rushmore

Mount Rushmore is one of the symbols of American independence and freedom in America. In addition, it is also a tribute to four great US presidents. Also known as "Mountain of Presidents," South Dakota's Rushmore commemorates the faces of four American presidents who changed the country's destiny. From left to right - George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. Work on creating the 18-meter sculptures began in 1927 and was completed in 1941. At the time, the project cost nearly $1 million. The masterpiece is currently valued at $11 billion in modern dollars, making the Mount Rushmore statues the most expensive in the world.

There is an opinion that sculptures are always cheaper than paintings... This is not true. Three-dimensional works can also bring in simply stunning sums!

It is generally accepted that the largest transactions on the art market are concluded when selling paintings. As a rule, this is true, but there are exceptions to every rule. Three-dimensional works, in particular sculptures and installations, are also confidently breaking price records. The following list of the most expensive sculptures is largely based on verified auction sales, as is our usual practice. But this time we still made two exceptions, adding to the list the platinum skull “For the Love of God” by Damian Hirst and “The Three Graces” by Antonio Canova. Even though the transactions did not take place at auctions, they nevertheless became public and certainly did not go unnoticed by the art market.

Auction results are given taking into account the Buyer’s Premium commission. For convenience, we converted them (as well as estimates) into US dollars at the exchange rate on the date of sale, and based on these figures we determined places in the rating. As in our other ratings, the selection was carried out on the principle of “one author - one work.” Of course, Giacometti, Brancusi or, say, Koons had more than one sale worth tens of millions of dollars, and we will try to mention all the most significant ones if possible. At the same time, by keeping only one place on the list for each sculptor, we were able to include many more names and interesting auction deals.

1. ALBERTO GIACOMETTI Pointing Man. 1947. $141.7 million

Alberto Giacometti is the most highly regarded (literally) classic of world sculpture. His withered, almost ethereal figures, symbolizing the alienation and loneliness of man in the modern world, invariably achieve high prices at auction. For some time, Giacometti even outperformed all painters combined: on February 3, 2010, the sculpture “Walking Man I” was sold for £65 million ($104.3 million). This, by the way, was the first auction lot in the world to cross the $100 million threshold.

More than five years later, the 1947 Pointing Man reached new auction heights with a hammer price of $141.7 million, including commission, a record not only for Giacometti, but for the entire sculpture market.

The Pointing Man sculpture was conceived and executed by Giacometti in 1947 in just one night. As the sculptor told his biographer, in a few months his first creative work in 15 years was to open in New York. personal exhibition. The deadlines were pressing, and one October night he sculpted the first plaster model. Six castings and one original copy were made from it. At the exhibition that followed in January 1948, “The Pointing Man” took central place in the exhibition along with “Walking Man” and “ standing woman" The exhibition created a sensation, Giacometti instantly became a star of the New York post-war art scene.

Today, the sculpture “Pointing Man” is in the collections of MoMA, Tate Modern and two other museums. The remaining three copies belong to private collections and foundation collections. The copy that was put up for auction is supposedly the only one hand-painted by Giacometti himself. In 1953, it was purchased from the Pierre Matisse Gallery by famous collectors Fred and Florence Olsen. Since 1970, the sculpture belonged to one private collection, from which it was put up for auction for the first time in history. As the organizers said, they offered the owner a guarantee, but he refused, saying that if the item remained unsold, he would keep it for himself. “He may have been a little upset that it was actually bought,” commented a Christie’s representative.

2. DAMIEN HIRST For the love of God. 2006. $100 million

The platinum skull encrusted with diamonds by Damien Hirst was not formally sold at auction, so it should not be included in our rating. But it would also be wrong to pass over in silence a deal that, if it had happened at an open auction, would have taken 2nd place in the price ranking of the most expensive sculpture in the world. In the spring of 2007, Hirst decided to make the skull the most expensive work living artist and put it up for sale at the White Cube gallery with a price tag of £50 million ($100 million). But suddenly the mortgage crisis struck in the United States, and potential buyers decided to keep their millions to themselves. The platinum and diamond skull was eventually bought by a group of investors, which included Hearst himself and his manager Frank Dunphy. They decided that if within eight years no one expressed a desire to purchase the item privately, then it would go under the hammer. In the meantime, the skull delights visitors to the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum.

results open bidding featuring Hirst's three-dimensional masterpieces, of course, are far from 100 million for a skull purchased in a private transaction, but very impressive. Just look at the “Sleepy Spring” installation, which is a thin transparent cabinet containing more than six thousand multi-colored tablets. The work was bought by Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, Emir of Qatar, for $19.21 million at Sotheby’s on June 21, 2007.

The third work by Hirst that we will mention here is the installation “Golden Calf” - the most impressive of more than two hundred works that were put up for the artist’s personal auction “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever”. The evening auction, at which the installation was sold for $18.66 million, took place on September 15, 2008. The Golden Calf is a stuffed bull placed in formaldehyde. The animal's horns are decorated with a golden disc. Exhibiting stuffed animals in formaldehyde and giving them solemn names, sometimes taken from the Bible, is another Hirst “signature” trick. It was for such work that he received the prestigious Turner Prize in 1995.

3. $71 million. Constantin Brancusi. An Exquisite Girl (Portrait of Nancy Cunard). Concept 1928. Casting 1932

Poor peasant son, who came on foot from Romania to Paris, where he was destined to become a pioneer of modern avant-garde sculpture - this is how one can imagine in a nutshell greatest sculptors 20th century Constantin Brancusi (in Paris he began to be called Brancusi in the French manner). Constantin Brancusi (1876–1957), who came to Paris in 1904 and lived in this city most of his life, was never shy about his simple origin, and even, on the contrary, he was proud of him and in every possible way supported the legend about himself: he wore traditional clothes of Romanian peasants even to official receptions, and turned his workshop on the outskirts of Montparnasse into a semblance of a Romanian house with hand-carved furniture and a fireplace, in which on a sculpted iron frying meat with a knitting needle.

The sculptor's talent awoke in Constantine while he was working as a messenger in the Romanian city of Craiova. In his free time, Brancusi began carving figures from wood and one day, as legend has it, he made a violin from scrap materials, which so impressed the local industrialist that he sent him to study at the Craiova Art School. Then the talented peasant studied at the School of Fine Arts in Bucharest, and in Paris he worked for a very short time in Rodin’s workshop, from where he left with the words “Nothing will grow in the shade of large trees.” But even this short experience of working with Rodin certainly influenced the development of Brancusi as a sculptor - one of his first significant works was called, by analogy with Rodin’s masterpiece, “The Kiss” (1907–1908). Only this was a completely different “Kiss”: Brâncuşi moved away from realism towards simplified, geometrized forms; figures of lovers, hewn from a single piece of stone, almost square, with schematic drawings of hair, eyes, lips.

Many people begin the history of modern abstract sculpture with “The Kiss” of Brancusi. Although the author himself never considered his works abstract. Bringing to perfection his favorite forms made of stone, marble, bronze, wood (Brâncuşi returned time after time to his series “The Kiss”, “Head of the Muse”, “Bird in Space”, “Endless Column”, etc.), the sculptor sought not literally display the appearance of an object or person, animal, but convey its idea, its inner essence. Through polished forms, Brâncuşi wanted to express a certain fundamental, hidden nature of things. The works of the Romanian sculptor are an amazing fusion of ancient, archaic art, steeped in myths and legends, with avant-garde ideas contemporary to the author.

The most expensive sculpture to date by Constantin Brâncuşi is the bronze “Exquisite Girl (Portrait of Nancy Cunard)” (conceived in 1928; cast in 1932). At the evening auction of impressionists and modernists on May 15, 2018, this work was bought for $71 million including commission. Nancy Cunard is a writer, political activist and one of the favorite muses of artists, poets and writers of the 1920s, including Tristan Tzaru, Ernest Hemingway, Man Ray, Louis Aragon, James Joyce and others. Nancy Cunard knew Constantin Brancusi and visited his workshop, but never specifically posed for him. She learned that Brancusi created the sculpture bearing her name many years later. The first version of the work, entitled "La jeune fille sophistiquée (Portrait de Nancy Cunard)", was executed in wood by Brâncuși between 1925 and 1927. In 1928, he decided to make a portrait of Nancy Cunard in bronze. In 1932, Brancusi himself cast it in a plaster mold in a single copy and carefully polished it. In generalized, semi-abstract forms, the sculptor depicted Nancy’s head on a thin neck with hair gathered at the back of her head in a bun of complex shape. Perhaps the shape of the hairstyle refers to Cunard's style of curling her strands around her face. In one sculpture, combining straight lines and feminine curves, smooth and at the same time broken, twisted forms, Brâncuşi wanted to convey the contradictory beauty of one of the main muses of the “roaring twenties.” And the Romanian genius certainly succeeded.

4. AMEDEO MODIGILIAN Head. 1911–1912. $70.7 million

Modigliani's "Head" is the envoy of that era, which in terms of innovation in the field of form is one of the key ones in the history of art. Deliberately “primitive”, but at the same time elegant, this sculpture serves as an excellent illustration of the enormous influence that African art had on modernism. Amedeo Modigliani took sculpture very seriously. A contemporary recalls that he loved making sculptures almost more than paintings, and would only do them if he had the money for the appropriate materials. Modigliani was a devotee of sculpture carved from a single piece of stone; he did not recognize castings from plaster molds. Constantin Brancusi helped him in acquiring the skills of a sculptor. During the period of creating the “Heads” series of sculptures, he was close to Anna Akhmatova, and experts see her features in these sculptures.

Original sculptures by Amedeo Modigliani are extremely rare at auction (however, at French auctions, bronze copies cast after the artist’s death are often offered for several tens of thousands of euros, but, as we remember, Modigliani himself worked exclusively in stone). To date, only 27 sculptures by the artist are known, and no more than ten of them remain in private hands. The previous time one of Modigliani’s “Heads” appeared at auction in 2010 in Paris, it was sold for almost $53 million. A “Head” dating from 1911–1912 was auctioned at Sotheby’s on November 4, 2014. As a result of the struggle between three contenders, the hammer price soared to $70.7 million.

5. JEFF KOONS Balloon Dog (orange). 1994–2000. $58.4 million

Jeff Koons' Balloon Dog (Orange) is not only one of the most expensive sculptures in the world, but also the most expensive work by a living artist.

Why would a grown man suddenly decide to create huge copies of children's toys? It's simple: in the early 1990s, Koons went through a painful divorce from his wife, who took him away from him. little son Ludwig. And the artist began creating sculptures of toys to show his son what he thought about him.

The orange “Balloon Dog”, made of painted stainless steel, is part of the “Celebration” series. This series includes “Dogs...” and “Balloon Flowers” in several color options; it also includes all the artist’s most famous works, including the purple “Flower from balloon" ($25.8 million, Christie's, June 30, 2008), "Hanging Heart" ($23.6 million, Sotheby's, November 14, 2007) and "Tulips" ($33.7 million, Christie's, November 14, 2012) .

This tiny sculpture, just over eight (!) centimeters high, was created about 5 thousand years ago in ancient Mesopotamia. The figurine was found in Iraq, near Baghdad. It's hard to believe, but she is the same age as the wheel, money and the world's first big cities! The baby lioness spent almost 60 years in the collection of Alastair Bradley Martin until they decided to put her up for auction in 2007. At Sotheby's, the sculpture exceeded the estimate three times and became the most expensive work ancient art in history.

$48.8 million

Another sculptural work that sold for a large sum in 2010 was Matisse's monumental relief, Nude from the Back IV. Like Giacometti's Walking Man I, the work is not unique, moreover (unlike Giacometti's sculpture), it was cast after the artist's death. As it turns out, this doesn't matter when it comes to a world-class masterpiece, other examples of which are on display at the Tate Gallery, the Pompidou Center and MoMA. A total of twelve such sculptures were cast; today only two are in private hands. Before Christie's auction on November 3, none of these colossi were put up for auction.

8. HENRY MOORE Reclining figure. Festival. 1951. $33.1 million

Commissioned by the Fine Arts Council for the 1951 British Festival, Henry Moore's sculpture Reclining Figure. Festival" in February 2012 set a record for his sculpture - £19.1 million ($30.1 million). This sale could be called a real breakthrough. Firstly, the estimate was tripled (before the sale at Christie's of the festival "Reclining Figure", Moore's works went for a maximum of $7-8 million). And secondly, with this record, Moore immediately became second in the top three most expensive British artists of the XX century (in first place - Francis Bacon; in third - Lucian Freud).

In total, Henry Moore made five casts and one original copy of “Reclining Figure” for the British Festival. And four years later, at Christie’s auction on June 30, 2016, the result of another casting of the “Reclining Figure” exceeded the previous record by $3 million: the price, including Buyer’s Premium, was $33.1 million (estimate $20–26.7 million).

The works of Henry Moore (1898–1986) were highly appreciated during the sculptor's lifetime. A kind of price peak was the $1.2 million mark, reached in 1982. Having survived the recession of the 1990s, the market for Moore’s works began to recover in the 2000s, and works by the classic modernist sculpture began to increase especially rapidly in price in 2007. And, as we can see from the updated records, real growth in the market for works by the British sculptor seems to be just beginning.

9. PAUL GAUGIN Teresa. OK. 1902–1903. $30.96 million

At the Christie’s auction in November 2015, Paul Gauguin’s sculpture “Thérèse” (“Therese”) made from the tropical red thespesia tree was sold for a record for the artist’s sculptures of $30.96 million (estimate $18–25 million). “Teresa” turned out to be almost three times more expensive than “Young Tahitian Woman” ($11.28 million), its predecessor at the top of the ranking of Gauguin sculptures. Meanwhile, “Teresa” has not yet reached the price ratings of Gauguin’s paintings: in the winter of 2015, there was news that Gauguin’s painting “When You Get Married” was sold in a private transaction for $300 million.

The history of the creation of “Teresa” is very interesting. In 1901, Paul Gauguin, in search of another earthly paradise, landed on the island of Hiva Oa in the Marquesas archipelago. After a long Tahitian period, he wanted to settle in the wilderness, where the power colonial France it feels smaller and life is cheaper. However, it turned out that all free plots of land on the island are under management catholic church. Gauguin, despite his anticlerical views, regularly attended mass for some time, which convinced the head of the Catholic mission, Father Martin, of his trustworthiness. But as soon as the artist received the land, he immediately abandoned his visits to the church, and on his land he built a house called “Maison du Jouir” - “House of Pleasure”. The house, with walls made of bamboo and a roof made of palm leaves, was decorated with exquisite Gauguin handicrafts - furniture, dishes and at least eight sculptures. "Teresa" is one of two surviving sculptures from the "House of Pleasure". The artist led a far from chaste life in this house, which turned Father Martin into his worst enemy. The latter made Gauguin the subject of his church sermons. The artist responded by carving two sculptures from wood and installing them outside his home. These were Father Martin in the form of the devil (the sculpture “Père Paillard” - “Father of Fornication” - is now kept in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington) and the local girl Teresa. There were persistent rumors on the island (which Gauguin happily believed) that the two were lovers. An angry priest tried to confiscate the sculptures under the pretext of Gauguin's unpaid taxes. However, when the confiscated works were put up for auction, the artist himself bought them and again placed them in front of the “House of Pleasure”. There they stood until Gauguin's death in 1903. Later history separated them, but “Thérèse” and “Père Paillard” as a sculptural pair were and are recognized by artists and critics of the avant-garde as one of the pinnacles of modernist sculpture.

10. WILLEM DE KUNING Shellfish finder. 1972. $29.28 million

The bronze sculpture “Clam Finder” by Willem de Kooning was sold at Christie’s on November 12, 2014 for a record $29.28 million for a sculpture by the author. De Kooning was engaged in sculpture from 1969 to 1974 and created no more than 25 three-dimensional works during this time. The sculpture “Clam Finder” is considered one of the best. Only ten of her castings are known, three of which are her own. Other copies are kept, in particular, at the Pompidou Center, the Stedelijk Museum, and the Whitney Museum.

The bronze sculpture presented for auction is the first author's casting. For forty years she “guarded” the entrance to De Kooning’s studio in Springs (New York). In the figure of the shellfish hunter there is a lot from the artist himself, who was born in the seaside city of Rotterdam. The sculpture “Clam Finder,” which has not left the family collection since its creation, was put up for auction by the granddaughters of Willem De Kooning.

11. PABLO PICASSO Head of a Woman (Dora Maar). 1941. $29.2 million dollars

It is impossible to imagine a list of the “best of” on the art market without Pablo Picasso. He, in particular, . The sculpture of the artist's beloved Dora Maar with chubby cheeks was cast in two copies. In a record year for the art market in 2007, the work became the most expensive sculpture in the world, but it did not hold this proud title for long: less than a month later, “Dora Maar” was displaced from the top step of the pedestal by “The Lioness of Guennola.”

The sculpture is surprisingly well preserved. At the Sotheby’s auction, a real “bidding war” broke out for it: first, two potential buyers “fired out” at around $12 million, then a third joined the game, and the price of the sculpture rose to $28 million in ten minutes, exceeding the upper estimate four times. Thus, “Artemis with a Doe” became the most expensive work of ancient art.

13. LOUISE BOURGEOIS Spider. 1997. $28.16 million

The first female sculptor in our ranking is, of course, Louise Bourgeois. The greatest figure in the history of art, Louise Bourgeois lived to be almost a hundred years old and during her long life tried my hand at almost all major artistic directions 20th century - cubism, futurism, surrealism, constructivism and abstractionism. Bourgeois is unique in this versatility. Her sculptures, often so different in appearance and material, nevertheless carry a common meaning. The key theme of her work is childhood memories and the moral trauma experienced at a young age, including due to her father’s betrayal of her mother.

One of the favorite images in Bourgeois’s work is spiders. The author did not suffer from arachnophobia, as many might think. For the sculptor, the spider, or rather the spider, was a special symbol - a symbol of the mother. As Bourgeois herself said about her mother, “she was as smart, patient, pure, reasonable and obliging as a spider. And she knew how to defend herself.” In addition, she had her own tapestry salon, so the comparison with the spider weaver seems even more meaningful. Giant bronze sculptures of spiders by Louise Bourgeois are breaking records one after another at auction sites. The last record holder was the 7-meter “Spider,” which was sold at Christie’s on November 10, 2015 for $28.16 million.

14. ADRIAN DE VRIES. Bacchic figure holding a globe. 1626. $27.9 million

Until recently, there were no bronze statues of the famous 17th-century Dutch sculptor Adrian de Vries in the country of his birth. This is all due to the creative biography of the master, who worked mainly away from his homeland - for example, in Prague and Augsburg. The sculptor, very popular during his lifetime, was forgotten after his death, and his works were scattered throughout the world. Well-deserved recognition began to return to him with late XIX century, when a list of his bronze sculptures was published in Sweden; and in the twentieth century, a number of researchers again drew the attention of art lovers to the “Dutch Michelangelo.” In 1989, his sculpture “Dancing Faun” was sold for three times its estimate - for £6.82 million ($11 million). For as long as 25 years, this was a record price for works by Adrian de Vries, which is not surprising, since sculptures by De Vries rarely come to public auction. The last such event occurred in December 2014. The bronze “Bacchic Figure Holding a Globe” was purchased at Christie’s for $27.9 million. The sculpture was snatched from three competitors by the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, which received financial support for the purchase from numerous foundations and private sponsors. Finally, the Netherlands also had their own Adrian de Vries.

There are many hypotheses about the plot of this sculpture. On the one hand, the mythological character has obvious signs of Bacchus (Dionysus) - a wreath of grape leaves in his hair, entwined grapevine a tree at his feet and a pipe. On the other hand, the character holds a globe above his head, which evokes a direct association with Atlas or Hercules. This means that either Adrian de Vries resorted to some original interpretation of myths and combined several plots, or the original idea of the sculpture was changed after the death of the author (“The Bacchic figure” was created in Last year author's life). The sculpture could remain unfinished, without an attribute accompanying Bacchus, such as a barrel of wine, and the person into whose possession it fell could add instead of a barrel a more noble, from his point of view, globe. Be that as it may, the first evidence of the existence of the sculpture (already with the globe) was found on a lithograph from 1700 with a view of the estate, where the sculpture was discovered more than 300 years later (in 2010).

15. ALEXANDER CALDER Flying fish. 1967. $25.9 million

Alexander Calder is known as the inventor of mobiles - kinetic sculptures made of light metal plates and rods driven by wind or an electric motor. Calder was involved in the creation of mobiles from the early 1930s until his death in 1976.

Calder mobiles - standing, hanging, mounted on brackets or vertical stands. The sculptor’s most expensive mobile is the hanging structure “Flying Fish” from 1957. The work doubled the preliminary estimate of $9–12 million - after six minutes of intense auction dispute, it went to the new owner for $25.925 million. This is 7 million more than the previous record of $18.6 million, taken by the “Power Lily” mobile in 2012.

The Flying Fish mobile was auctioned from the collection of Chicago philanthropists Edwin and Lindy Bergman. Although most of Calder's mobiles are emphatically abstract and have nothing in common with images of real life, the fish motif was an exception; the sculptor turned to it several times since the 1930s. Fish is one of the oldest religious symbols, and not only in Christianity (in Buddhism, for example, fish is considered one of the eight symbols of fortune). For Calder, the fish represented smooth and graceful movement - everything that he wanted to achieve in his kinetic sculptures. For centuries, sculpture was something static; Alexander Calder took it into another dimension, giving it the ability to move. In the Flying Fish mobile, Calder beautifully combines the monumental body of a fish, in the spirit of traditional sculpture, with the lightweight structure of its tail, made from more than a dozen elements. At the slightest breath of wind, the plates of the mobile begin to move, and it seems as if the fish is swimming through the air.

The next most important antique work in terms of market price is the Roman marble bust of the handsome Antinous of the 2nd century. n. e. This sculptural portrait of the beloved Emperor Hadrian was found in northern Israel, on the Golan Heights, near the city of Banias. The inscription on the base of the bust states that the work is a dedication to "the hero Antinous" from M. Lucius Flaccus. It is obvious that Marcus Lucius Flaccus was an influential man, since he dared to put his name next to the name of the deified Antinous. Despite the broken nose, the marble bust sank into the souls of five lovers of antiquity. They bargained for it for eleven minutes, and in the end the bust went to a European collector for $23.826 million.

17. DAVID SMITH Cubi XXVIII. 1965. $23.816 million

Want to know what Abstract Expressionist sculpture looks like? Look at the work of David Smith. This American artist is famous for his steel sculptures, the most famous of which resemble abstract landscapes. However, at the end of his life, Smith moved away from expressionism and began making sculptures from geometric shapes, which he called Cubi.

Cubi XXVIII was the last in this series; shortly after its creation, the artist died in a car accident. Sculpture for a long time was in the Guggenheim Museum in New York until they decided to put it up for auction. On November 9, 2005, at Sotheby’s New York, Cubi XXVIII became the most expensive work by a post-war artist. It was bought by the same Larry Gagosian, but not for his gallery, but on behalf of collector Eli Broad.

18. Yves KLEIN Untitled. Sponge sculpture. SE 168 (Sculptures éponges 168). 1959. $22 million

The French artist Yves Klein carried out all kinds of experiments to become part of the history of art forever - he sold emptiness for gold bars, which he then threw into the Seine, he created paintings using a flamethrower or raindrops, he painted with “living brushes”, the role of which was played by naked models , patented his favorite shade of blue. Klein also began to use as material for his works sea sponges. Artists sometimes apply paint with them, but Klein went further - he made bas-reliefs and sculptures from sponges.

He came to this by accident. “When working on paintings in my studio, I sometimes used sponges. They turned blue very quickly. One day I noticed how beautiful these blue sponges were, and immediately the instrument became a source material for me. I was attracted by this unique ability of sponges to absorb any liquid. With the help of sponges - living matter - I could create portraits of those who looked at my monochromes, who, after contemplating the blue in my works, were imbued with the same sensuality as my sponges,” explained Yves Klein in 1958.

One of the most famous, repeatedly published and frequently exhibited sculptures of Klein's series of Sculptures éponges (sponge sculptures), number 168 at Sotheby's on May 14, 2013, was sold for a record $22 million. It is a “flower” growing from a stone base made of sponges soaked in Klein’s blue pigment International Klein Blue (IKB). Klein's most expensive sculpture is by no means his most expensive work at all. Klein's bas-reliefs with sponges are even more expensive: here the record belongs to the pink “Le Rose du bleu”, sold in 2012 for $36.7 million.

19. AUGUSTE RODIN Eternal spring. 1901–1903. $20.41 million

At the Sotheby’s evening auction of impressionism and modernism on May 9, 2016, Auguste Rodin’s marble sculpture “Éternel printemps” (“Eternal Spring,” 1901–1903) was sold for a record for the sculptor $20.41 million (estimate: $8–12 million). This version of Rodin's Eternal Spring is the fifth of ten known marble sculptures of the subject. Other versions of “Eternal Spring” are kept in the State Hermitage Museum (1906), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1906–1907), the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts (1901), etc. The idea and first execution of “Eternal Spring” dates back to the mid-1880s, when the sculptor was in love with his student Camille Claudel.

The antique marble sculpture "Leda and the Swan" is a Roman copy of a lost Greek original of the statue attributed to the sculptor Timothy. Before appearing at the Sotheby’s auction, this copy was not known to specialists, much less to the public. There was no information about her in any of the scientific works devoted to the Roman marble sculpture. This is because since the end of the 18th century it has stood quietly and peacefully on the Aske Hall estate, owned by the Marquises of Zetland. This copy is one of the few with the head still intact and is in generally good condition. Therefore, the increase in the auction price by six times against the upper estimate is quite understandable.

21. EDGAR DEGAS A little fourteen-year-old dancer. Model 1879–1881, cast 1922. $18.82 million

The sculpture of a young dancer of the Parisian ballet school, Marie van Goethem, is the only three-dimensional work that was exhibited during Degas's lifetime. This was at the 1881 Impressionist exhibition. Then the wax statue of a ballerina wearing a muslin tutu, pointe shoes and even real hair was considered too naturalistic. Many were outraged by her “degenerate” facial features, like those of the “criminal types” of Lombroso, the author of a popular theory at the time about developmental delays that are reflected in the appearance of criminals. The sculpture was exhibited in a glass display case, which was new and also controversial. Only after Degas's death did the public and experts appreciate the sculpture. The master’s relatives made 28 bronze copies of the “Dancer” in wax in 1922, leaving them, however, with muslin skirts and ribbons in their hair. Of these 28 castings, most have long been in museums. About a dozen copies remain in private hands. The one that became the record holder at Sotheby's auction in 2009 was exhibited by British businessman John Madejski, who, in turn, got it in 2004 for £4.5 million ($8.1 million). Five years later, the sculpture of the ballerina bought for £13.3 million ($18.82 million), i.e. almost three times more expensive. This is still the most expensive sculpture by Degas. Another copy of “The Little Dancer” was exhibited at Christie’s in 2011, but the estimate is $25–35 million , apparently, scared off buyers.

22. MAURICIO CATTELAN Him. 1901 - 1903. $20.41 million

On May 8, 2016, at the Christie’s “Doomed to Fail” auction in Rockefeller Plaza, the scandalous sculpture was purchased in serious competition, exceeding the estimate Italian sculptor Maurizio Cattelan's "Him", depicting a kneeling Hitler. The sculpture “Him” is well known to Western viewers. Her brothers in the series have been exhibited more than 10 times in leading museums around the world, including the Pompidou Center and the Solomon Guggenheim Museum. And the list of publications about this work hardly fits on the page.

It’s interesting that “Him” is a limited edition work. There are four copies in total - three plus artist’s proof. It was the latter that was sold at Christie’s. As we can see, the buyer was not at all embarrassed by the “non-uniqueness” - modern collectors have long been taking edition items seriously for a long time.

The thing is strange. The name is strange. Choosing a character is risky. Like everything from Cattelan. What does Him mean? “His” or “His infernal majesty”? It is clear that we are definitely not talking about glorifying the image of the Fuhrer. In this work, Hitler appears rather in a helpless, pitiful form. And absurd - the incarnation of Satan is made as tall as a child, dressed in a schoolboy costume and kneeling with a humble expression on his face. For Cattelan, this image is an invitation to think about the nature of absolute evil and a way to get rid of fears. In May 2017, this sculpture will participate in the exhibition “Loss” (75 years of the Babi Yar tragedy) at the Ukrainian PinchukArtCentre.

The Cyclades archipelago of more than 200 islands scattered across the Aegean Sea has given rise to one of the most interesting archaeological cultures Bronze Age. Simplified and at the same time elegant figurines were created by the inhabitants of the Cyclades in the 3rd - 2nd millennia BC. and are considered to have influenced the development of modernist sculpture. Small marble figurines are found, as a rule, in rich Cycladic burials. The names of their authors cannot be established, however, based on certain general stylistic features, scientists identify with a high degree of probability complexes of works of one or another master. Such groups of figurines attributed to one master are called by the name of the museum or, say, by the name of the owner of one of the figurines. For example, 12 works are attributed to Master Shuster (named after the first owner of the most famous figurine, Marion Shuster). This marble figurine by master Schuster, who lived around 2400 BC, became a real sensation at Christie's auction on December 9, 2010. A perfectly preserved 30-centimeter figurine of a lying pregnant woman with her hands folded on her stomach (that the figurine is lying , but not worth it, scientists concluded from the position of her feet) tripled the estimate and went to the new owner for $16.88 million.

24. TAKASHI MURAKAMI My lonely cowboy. 1998. $15.16 million

Japanese Takashi Murakami works as a painter, sculptor, fashion designer and animator. Murakami wanted to take something truly Japanese as the basis for his work, without Western or any other borrowings. As a student, he was fascinated by traditional Japanese nihonga painting, which was later replaced by popular art anime and manga. This is how the psychedelic Mr DOB, patterns of smiling flowers and bright, shiny fiberglass sculptures, as if straight from the pages of Japanese comics, were born. Some consider Murakami's art to be fast food and the embodiment of vulgarity, others call the artist the Japanese Andy Warhol - and among the latter there are many very rich people. In 2008, the sculpture of an anime blond “My Lonely Cowboy” (the name is borrowed from the Andy Warhol film of the same name) was bought at Sotheby's for $15.16 million.

25. DONALD JUDD Untitled (DSS 42). 1963. $14.16 million

“I want them to be simple,” minimalist Donald Judd (1928–1994) said of his sculptures in a 1960s interview. The minimalist movement was just emerging in America at that time, and Judd was one of its first representatives. The sculptor wanted to oppose simple forms to the dominance of abstract expressionism. To our eyes, accustomed to complex designs, Donald Judd's objects may seem too simple. But this is exactly what the author wanted to achieve - purity of color and form. His most expensive installation sculpture to date, Untitled (DSS 42), is a panel of red wooden strips with black metal folding edges. The work was bought in November 2013 at Christie's for $14.16 million with an estimate of $10–15 million. Judd's previous record sale in 2012 was exactly 4 million less - $10.14 million for the work “Untitled (Bernstein 89-24) "

Barberini's Venus (or Jenkins' Venus) is a Roman copy of a lost Greek original of the type of Aphrodite of Cnidus by Praxiteles. She is also believed to be related to the Venus de Medici of the Uffizi Gallery. The fate of the sculpture is closely connected with the history of collecting in the British Empire of the 18th century. At that time, the noble English lords who committed trip around the world, traditionally visited Italy in search of ancient artifacts in general and sculpture in particular. Excellent works of art were exported in boxes to Foggy Albion, where they replenished British collections. Back side this process was the dispersal of many remarkable Italian collections - for example, the collection of the Palazzo Barberini in Rome; Venus was found in the basements of this palace. In the 1760s, the marble goddess fell into the hands of Thomas Jenkins, a well-known businessman at that time close to the Pope. Now we would call such a person an art dealer. Jenkins gave the sculpture for restoration, during which, according to one version, a head from some other sculpture was matched to the previously headless statue. Even if the head of Venus Barberini is alien, it looks authentic. After restoration, the statue became so beautiful that 26-year-old Englishman William Weddell could not resist it and bought Venus for a huge sum at that time. And although the price of the sculpture varies greatly in different sources, it is known that this was the largest amount paid for an antique work of art in the 18th century in general.

27. ANTONIO CANOVA Three graces. 1814–1817. $11.5 million

Formally, this sculpture should not be here either, since it was purchased in a private transaction. However, we made an exception for her: firstly, this is Canova, secondly, the history of the transaction is very indicative, and thirdly, the price is such that the work definitely deserves a place, if not in the ranking, then certainly in the listing.

The sculptural group “The Three Graces” by Antonio Canova exists in two versions. The first version is on display in the Hermitage. It was made for Empress Josephine, Napoleon's wife, around 1814. The English Duke of Bedford, having visited Canova's Roman workshop, wanted to buy the sculpture for his estate, but he was refused. In 1814, Josephine died, and her heirs also refused to sell the sculpture. From the empress's son, Eugene Beauharnais, it was later passed on to his grandson Maximilian, who, in turn, took Canova's masterpiece to Russia. The Duke of Bedford commissioned Canova to produce a second version of The Three Graces. The sculptor sculpted almost the same Euphrosyne, Aglaia and Thalia, and in 1816–1817 the three graces arrived at the Bedford estate of Woburn Abbey. There, the sculptural group was placed in a special pavilion next to other neoclassical statues. And although this pavilion at Woburn Abbey is today considered national treasure In Britain, and not supposed to be dismantled, the statue of Canova located in it was resold in 1990 to a mysterious investment company. The sculpture was removed from Woburn Abbey and an attempt was made to take it abroad. The Los Angeles Getty Museum was ready to be the buyer. However, as often happens in Britain with cultural objects of particular importance, an export license was not issued. After lengthy legal battles, the Canova sculpture was eventually purchased from the estate of the Dukes of Bedford by the joint efforts of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Galleries of Scotland for £7.6 million ($11.5 million). Since then, “The Three Graces” has moved from one museum to another approximately every three years.

$9.9 million

American Bruce Nauman (1941), winner of the main prize at the 48th Venice Biennale (1999), took a long time to achieve his record. Nauman began his career in the sixties. Connoisseurs call him, along with Andy Warhol and Joseph Beuys, one of the most influential figures in the art of the second half of the twentieth century. However, the intense intellectuality and absolute lack of decorativeness of some of his works obviously prevented his rapid recognition and success among the general public. Nauman often experiments with language, discovering unexpected meanings in familiar phrases. Words dominate many of his works, including neon pseudo-signs and murals. Nauman himself calls himself a sculptor, although over the past forty years he has tried himself in different genres - sculpture, photography, video art, performances, graphics. In the early nineties, Larry Gagosian uttered the prophetic words: “ Real value We have yet to understand Nauman’s work.” And so it happened: on May 17, 2001, at Christie’s, Nauman’s 1967 work “Helpless Henry Moore (Backview)” (Henry Moore Bound to Fail (Backview)) set a new record in the post-war art segment. A cast of Nauman's hands tied behind his back, made of plaster and wax, went under the hammer for $9.9 million to the collection of French tycoon Francois Pinault (according to other sources, American Phyllis Wattis). The estimate for the work was only $2–3 million, so the result was surprising.

The work “Helpless Henry Moore” is one of a series of polemical works by Nauman about the role of Henry Moore in the history of twentieth-century art. Young authors who find themselves in the shadows recognized master, then attacked him with ardent criticism. Nauman's sculpture is a response to this criticism and at the same time a reflection on the topic of creativity. The title of the work becomes a pun, as it combines two meanings of the English word bound - “bound” (in the literal sense) and “doomed to a certain fate.” In addition, Nauman offers another paradox in this work: the “rear view” stated in the title of the work is in fact a front view and the only angle in which the work can be viewed.

29. ARISTIDE MAILLOL River. 1938–1943. $8.32 million

Aristide Maillol is an author whose appearance in our ranking can be sincerely rejoiced. One of the greatest sculptors of the first half of the twentieth century, who did not betray the traditions of realism in the era of fascination with abstract forms, proclaimed the cult of a healthy and strong body as opposed to mannered, salon forms. Even the concept of a “Mayol woman” arose - beautiful, natural, maybe a little ponderous, but at the same time very harmonious. Maillol's main muse was the emigrant Dina Verny (nee Dina Yakovlevna Aibinder), whom they met when the sculptor was over 70, and Verny was only 15. Dina posed for Maillol for his most famous works - the allegorical sculptures "Air" and "River", the last works "Harmony" and others. After the death of the sculptor in 1944, it was Dina Verny who became Maillol’s main heir, received all his collections at her disposal, and took over gallery business. Dina Verney died in 2009, and four years later her children decided to put up several works by Maillol from her collection at the Artcurial Paris auction on December 2, 2013. The preparatory pastel sketch for the sculpture “River” cost a record for Maillol’s graphics, 791 thousand dollars. And “The River” itself (lead casting from 1970) was sold for a record for the sculptor €6.18 million ($8.37 million), twice the estimate of €2–3 million ($2.7–4 million). The record can be considered quite logical, given the reinforced concrete provenance of the sculpture.

Another antique artifact on our list of the most expensive sculptures is a marble bust of the Roman politician and military leader Germanicus (full name Germanicus Julius Caesar Claudian), the adopted son of Emperor Tiberius and the father of Emperor Caligula. An unknown sculptor sculpted a young and successful Roman commander who distinguished himself with his campaigns in Germany and was poisoned at the age of only 33. There are about ten similar busts of Germanicus. The most famous of them are kept in the Louvre (bust found in Cordoba) and the British Museum (basalt version). The bust, auctioned at Sotheby's in December 2012, comes from the collection of the Dukes of Elgin and their family estate of Broomhall in Scotland. The bust of Germanicus was purchased in Rome in 1798 or 1799 by the secretary of the British ambassador to Constantinople, the 7th Duke of Elgin, Thomas Bruce. The antique marble bust was intended to decorate the diplomatic residence. Subsequently, for several centuries, the bust of Germanicus settled in Broomhall. It is not surprising that up to $8 million were fought for work with such a solid provenance.

31. SY TWOMBLEY Untitled (Rome). 1987. $7.7 million

Cy Twombly is one of the most expensive and most obscure contemporary artists. Art critics are delighted with his work, while the vast majority of the public is not ready to call “this” art. Nevertheless, his canvases, covered with scratches like children's scribbles or drawings primitive man, are worth millions of dollars on the global art market. And now a sculpture has appeared on the list of his most expensive works. The work “Untitled (Rome)” was sold at Christie’s on May 15, 2013 for $7.7 million including commission. The sculpture is cast from bronze, but the basis for it was an assemblage of pieces of wood, a poppy seed pod, a thin wooden support and other objects. Behind the apparent simplicity, art critics read many meanings. This is an homage to Giacometti’s “Walking Man” (if you look closely, you can guess anthropomorphic forms in the thin sticks), and a reference to antiquity (poppy flowers appear in many ancient Greek myths), and a line that has burst into three-dimensional space. Cy Twombly's art is not for everyone, but the important thing for the market is that "not everyone" includes millionaires.

32. JULIO GONZALEZ Mask “Shadow and Light”. Circa 1930. $7.45 million

A classic of modernist sculpture, Julio Gonzalez was considered both an abstractionist and a surrealist, but he himself rejected such definitions. He called his welded iron sculptures simply “drawings in space.” Gonzalez created his whimsical images from industrial waste - tin scraps, mechanical parts, etc. Interestingly, Gonzalez, a native of Barcelona, spent 50 years pursuing his calling as a sculptor. He was born into a family of famous jewelers, for some time he followed in his father’s footsteps, but dreamed of becoming a painter. In 1902 he left Spain forever for Paris and creative environment Montmartre. Here he became friends with Picasso (according to the latter, Gonzalez “manipulated metal like oil”). However, he began to create his first metal sculptures only in the late 1920s. The most expensive work of Julio Gonzalez to date - the mask “Shadow and Light” - dates back to 1930. An original iron work was put up for auction at Sotheby's, from which 8 castings (plus 5 original ones) were made in bronze.

33. MARINO MARINI Horseman. 1951. Casting 1955. $7.15 million

Everyone recognizes the Italian sculptor Marino Marini (1901–1980) mainly by his sculptures of horsemen, magnificent in their archaic simplicity. The artist, who during his lifetime achieved recognition and all sorts of awards (including the first prize at the Venice Biennale in 1952), also has remarkable sculptural portraits, and nudes, and works on paper and canvas, however, Marini had a special attitude towards the theme of horse and rider. As he himself said, familiarity with the Etruscan culture played a huge role in his work: “That’s why my art is built on themes from the past, such as the connection between horse and rider, and not on modern themes like the relationship between man and machine.” But if the first riders of Marino Marini stood firmly and confidently on their horses, like ancient heroes, then over time, images of horses ready to throw off their riders began to appear more and more often from under the master’s hand. The horseman overthrown from the throne-saddle reflects the author’s idea of crisis human nature and the withering away of the values of the past. One of these sculptures, cast in 1955, spent more than 50 years in the collection of the Swedish trade union. Its 2010 auction result was a record for Marino Marini: the sculpture “Horseman” earned $7.15 million.

34. URS FISCHER Untitled (Lamp “Bear”). 2005–2006. $6.8 million

And finally - the yellow bear by Urs Fischer (1973). This is perhaps the most thorough and meaningful work Fisher to ever appear at auction. The Swiss artist is best known for his short-lived works made of wax (large candle sculptures that float as the wick burns) or bread (Fischer once built a house out of bread and placed parrots in it, which gradually crumbled and ate their home). And the “Bear Lamp,” although it seems like a soft plush toy, is actually made of bronze. This seven-meter sculpture, weighing about 20 tons, is dedicated to things beloved and familiar from childhood. Fisher connects everyday objects that are difficult to imagine fused together. But this bear with a lamp burning in its forehead makes a festive impression. Koons’ “balloons” immediately come to mind. After sitting on the square in front of Christie's New York office, the yellow bear went to a private collection in exchange for $6.8 million.

Maria Onuchina, Yulia Maksimova, Katerina Onuchina,A.I.

On May 12, 2015, at Christie's New York auction, another price record was broken: the sculpture "Pointing Man" by Alberto Giacometti was sold for $141.3 million. This is almost $40 million more than the previous top lot - another work by the Swiss master, "Walking Man I" " Learn more about which sculptors’ works are popular at auctions and how much collectors are willing to pay for them

"Pointing Man", 1947

"Pointing Man" is the most expensive sculpture ever sold at auction. This is one of six similar bronze statues by Giacometti created in 1947. The sculpture, which went under the hammer at Christie’s, has been kept in a private collection for the last 45 years. Its previous owner bought the work in 1970 from American collectors Fred and Florence Olsen. They, in turn, purchased the masterpiece in 1953 from the son of the famous French artist Henri Matisse Pierre. The remaining “pointing” sculptures are kept in museums around the world, including New York’s MoMA and London’s Tate Gallery, as well as in private collections.

The lot sold at Christie’s differs from others in that Giacometti painted it by hand. The sculptor created the statue in a few hours - between midnight and nine in the morning, he told his biographer. The Swiss master was preparing for his first personal exhibition in New York in 15 years. "I did it already plaster cast, but destroyed and created again and again, because the foundry workers had to pick it up in the morning. When they got the cast, the plaster was still wet,” he recalled.

Giacometti's works are considered among the most expensive on the modern art market. On the eve of the auction, experts estimated the cost of “Pointing Man” at $130 million - higher than the cost of the previous record holder, “Walking Man I” by the same author. The name of the buyer who paid $141.3 million for the sculpture has not been disclosed.

"Walking Man I", 1961

"Walking Man I" is considered one of the most recognizable sculptures of the 20th century. The work, along with a portrait of its author, is even depicted on the 100 Swiss francs banknote. In 2010, it appeared at auction for the first time in twenty years - the lot was put up by the German Dresdner Bank AG, which acquired the masterpiece for a corporate collection, but after the takeover of Commerzbank got rid of the art objects. The sellers promised to donate the proceeds from “Walking Man I” to charity.

The sculpture caused a real stir. At least ten contenders competed for it in the hall, but the highest price was eventually offered by an anonymous buyer over the phone. The bidding lasted eight minutes, during which time the starting price of the lot rose five times (and together with commissions - almost six).

Experts from The Wall Street Journal suggested that the anonymous buyer was Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who two years earlier bought bronze statue women, created by Giacometti in 1956. However, Bloomberg later found out that the owner of the statue was Lily Safra, the widow of Brazilian banker Edmond Safra.

“For the love of the Lord”, 2007

The sculpture, made by the famous British artist Damien Hirst from 2 kg of platinum, is a slightly reduced copy of the skull of a 35-year-old European man of the 18th century. The diamond slots (8,601 in total) are laser cut, the jaw is made of platinum, and the teeth are real. The skull is crowned with a pink diamond weighing 52.4 carats. The work cost British artist, famous for his controversial installations using animal corpses in formaldehyde, at £14 million.

Hirst claimed that the name of the sculpture was inspired by the words of his mother when she asked him: For the love of God, what are you going to do next? (“For God’s sake, what are you doing now?”). For the love of God is a verbatim quote from the First Epistle of John.

In 2007, the skull was exhibited at the White Cube gallery, and the same year it was sold for $100 million (£50 million). Bloomberg and The Washington Post wrote that the group of investors included Damien Hirst himself, as well as Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk. A representative of the White Cube gallery did not comment on the rumors, but reported that the buyers intend to subsequently resell Hirst's work.

"Head", 1910-1912

Collectors bargained over the phone for the work of Amedeo Modigliani, and in the end the sculpture went under the hammer for $59.5 million, which was ten times higher than the starting price. The name of the buyer was not disclosed, but it is known that he is from Italy.

Modigliani did not study sculpture for long - from 1909 to 1913, when the artist returned to painting again, including due to tuberculosis. The “Head,” sold at Christie’s, is part of a collection of seven sculptures, “Pillars of Tenderness,” which the author exhibited in 1911 in the studio of the Portuguese artist Amadeo de Sousa-Cordoso. All works are distinguished by a pronounced oval head, almond-shaped eyes, a long, thin nose, a small mouth and an elongated neck. Experts also draw analogies between Modigliani’s sculpture and the famous bust of Queen Nefertiti, which is kept in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin.

"Balloon Dog (Orange)", 1994-2000

The stainless steel dog came to auction from the collection of businessman Peter Brant, having previously visited the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the Grand Canal in Venice and the Palace of Versailles. The pre-sale estimate for the lot, three meters high and weighing a ton, was $55 million. The orange dog is the first of five “airy” dogs created by the American artist. The remaining four sculptures also went to collections, but were sold at a lower price.

Commercial success came to Koons, a former Wall Street broker, in 2007. Then his giant metal installation “Hanging Heart” was sold at Sotheby’s for $23.6 million. The following year, the huge purple “Balloon Flower” went to Christie’s for $25.8 million. In 2012, the sculpture “Tulips” was sold at Christie's for $33.7 million.

"Lioness of Guennola", circa 3000–2800 BC. e.

Created in Ancient Mesopotamia about 5,000 years ago, a limestone figurine was found in 1931 in Iraq, near Baghdad. There are two holes preserved in the lioness's head for a cord or chain: it was intended to be worn around the neck. Since 1948, the work belonged to the famous American collector Alistair Bradley Martin and was exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. When announcing the decision to sell the sculpture, Martin promised to use the proceeds for charity.

The antique "Lioness" set a record price for sculptures in 2007 at New York's Sotheby's, displacing Picasso's bronze "Head of a Woman" from first place, which sold less than a month earlier for $29.1 million. The final price for the sculpture exceeded the initial price by more than three times. Five buyers took part in the competition for the figurine; the winner of the auction wished to remain anonymous.

"Diego's Big Head", 1954

The bronze sculpture depicts Alberto Giacometti's younger brother Diego, who was the Swiss master's favorite model. There are several “Heads”; the last of the series was sold at Sotheby’s in 2013 for $50 million. “Diego’s Big Head” was cast for installation on a street square in New York; work on it was suspended due to the death of the author. The estimate for the sculpture that went under the hammer at Christie’s was $25-35 million.

Giacometti is in the top 10 most dear artists world since 2002, after the sale of several works by the artist at Christie’s. The most expensive figurine sold then was the third of eight copies of the “Cage” sculpture - it was valued at $1.5 million. However, 2010 became a landmark year for the artist, when Giacometti’s works began to be valued at the same level as Picasso’s paintings.

“Nude female figure from the back IV”, 1958

Experts call the bronze bas-relief “Nude Female Figure from the Back IV” the most striking of the four works in the series “Standing with her back to the viewer,” and the entire series as the greatest creation of modernist sculpture of the 20th century.

Until 2010, none of the sculptures from this cycle were put up for auction, although the bas-relief sold at Christie’s is not the only one: a plaster cast for each series was cast in 12 copies at once. The height of one figure is 183 cm, weight - more than 270 kg. Now complete series of “Standing with Your Back to the Viewer” are kept in nine leading museums in the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London and the Pompidou Center in Paris. There were only two copies left in private collections, one of which was auctioned.

"Female Nude from the Back IV" was originally estimated at $25-35 million, and the amount paid for it was a record for a Matisse work ever sold at auction.

"Madame L.R.", 1914-1917

The legendary sculptor of Romanian origin gained worldwide fame in Paris, where he lived for 35 years. His work had a great influence on the development of modern sculpture; Brancusi was called the founder of sculptural abstraction. The Pompidou Center has had a separate “Brancusi Room” since its inception.

Wooden figurine of Madame L.R. was created by Brancusi in 1914-1917. This is one of his most famous works. It is believed that "Madame L.R." conveys the traditional style of Carpathian carving and the influence of African art on the author’s work. The sculpture was sold in 2009 at Christie's as part of an art collection French couturier Yves Saint Laurent.

"Tulips", 1995-2004

“The numbers on the price tag sometimes seem astronomical to me. But people pay such sums because they dream of joining the art process. Their right,” Jeff Koons reasoned in a conversation with Interview magazine after his “Tulips” were sold for $33.7 million. Koons is called the most successful American artist after Warhol.

“Tulips” are one of the most complex and large sculptures from the Holiday series (in apparent weightlessness, they weigh more than three tons). This is a bouquet of seven intertwined “balloon” flowers, made of stainless steel and coated with translucent paint.

The sculpture, which according to the author’s intention reveals the concept of childhood innocence, was bought in 2012 by one of the most extravagant heroes of Las Vegas, casino owner and billionaire Steve Wynn. He decided to showcase this acquisition at Wynn Las Vegas: the businessman adheres to the idea of “public art” and often displays items from his collection at the resorts he owns.

The world of art is deep and fascinating; creators all over the world create thousands of creations every day, however, only a few of them become real masterpieces, which are glorified throughout the world with amazing speed. Today we will talk about sculpture, namely about those works that are today recognized as the most expensive in the whole world.
In May 2015, the famous Christie’s auction was held in New York, at which all imaginable and unimaginable records were broken - a sculpture by the famous Swiss master Alberto Giacometti was bought for 141 million US dollars! And this is as much as 40 million more than the price of the previous record, which, by the way, was a sculpture by the same master. So, what are famous collectors around the world willing to pay such impressive sums for? Let's take a look at the ten most expensive sculptures in the world...

1 Pointing man

Sculpture famous sculptor Alberto Giacometti, which was created in 1947 and left the last Christie’s auction for $141 million. By the way, “Pointing Man” is one of six existing similar statues that were created in the same time period. The 180 cm tall creation, according to the author’s intention, symbolizes the loneliness and insecurity of human existence.
The name of the buyer who made such an impressive purchase has not been disclosed at this time.

2 Walking Man I

A cult work by the same author, which is considered the most recognizable sculpture of the last century. Before “The Pointing Man,” it was also considered the most expensive; in 2010, it appeared at auction for the first time in the last 20 years. The auction lasted only 8 minutes, during which time the price of the creation increased fivefold, after which it was sold to the widow of a Brazilian banker, Lily Safra.

3 For love, gentlemen

This sculpture is a striking representative of modern art - a slightly reduced copy of the skull of a European man of the 18th century. The entire skull is decorated with small diamonds (about 8.5 thousand in total), real teeth are inserted, and a huge pink diamond weighing 52.4 carats “burns” in the forehead. The glamorous skull cost the creator 14 million euros, and in 2010 it was auctioned for $100 million.

4 Head, Amedeo Modigliani

One of the most famous works of the artist and sculpture by Amedeo Modigliani (1910), which is still compared to the famous bust of Nefertiti. The “Head” is strongly reminiscent of all Modigliani’s works and has all the characteristic features: an elongated oval face, a long thin nose, almond-shaped eyes and a small mouth. The famous creation was purchased by a collector in 2010 at an auction in Paris for 59.5 million.

5 Balloon dog

A minimalist sculpture by Jeff Koons, which masterfully embodies the feeling of weightlessness and airiness, despite the fact that the creation weighs a ton and is three meters high. The orange dog is created from stainless steel and is one of five similar “air” dogs by the author. It was sold at auction for $55 million; other creations sold for less.

6 Lioness Guennola

The eight-centimeter limestone figurine was created about 5,000 years ago, and was found only in the middle of the last century. The creation of an unknown master of Ancient Mesopotamia for a long time belonged to a famous collector from America, but in 2007 it was sold at a New York auction for $29.1 million.

7 Diego's big head

Another work by Alberto Giacometti, created in 1954, although unfinished due to the death of the author. The bronze sculpture represents the image of Giacometti’s younger brother, who was one of the author’s favorite characters for inspiration and creativity. It was sold in 2013 for $50 million.

8 Nude female figure from the back IV

Part of the series “Standing with her back to the viewer”, on which the sculptor Henri Matisse worked. Considered one of the greatest works of modernist sculpture of the last century. The height of the figure is 183 cm, weight is about 270 kg. Originally valued at $25 million, it was bought at Christie’s for $48.8 million.

Another creation by Jeff Koons. The stainless steel sculpture is a bouquet of seven intertwined flowers that resemble Balloons. The Tulips were sold in 2012 for $33.7 million to casino owner Steve Wynn.

The art of sculpture in our time has probably reached its apogee, at least as regards the price and demand for the works of masters. On May 12, 2015, at Christie's auction (the world's largest auction house after Sotheby's) in New York, another price record was broken: the rather controversial sculpture "Man Pointing" by Alberto Giacometti was sold for an incredible the amount of 141.3 million dollars! This is almost 40 million more than the previous top lot - another work by this Swiss master, “Walking Man I”.

Sculpture "Pointing Man", 1947

Height: 180 cm

Price: $141.3 million

Place, time of sale: Christie's, May 2015

"Pointing Man" is the most expensive sculpture ever sold at auction. This is one of six similar bronze statues by Giacometti created in 1947. The sculpture, which went under the hammer at Christie's, has been kept in a private collection for the last 45 years. Its former owner bought the work from American collectors Fred and Florence Olsen in 1970. They, in turn, purchased the masterpiece in 1953 from the son of the famous French artist Henri Matisse Pierre. The remaining "pointing" sculptures are kept in museums around the world, including New York's MoMA and London's Tate Gallery, as well as in private collections.

The lot sold at Christie's differs from others in that Giacometti painted it by hand. The sculptor created the statue in a few hours - between midnight and nine in the morning, he told his biographer. The Swiss master was preparing for his first exhibition in New York in 15 years. “I had already made a plaster cast, but I destroyed it and created it again and again because the foundry workers had to pick it up in the morning. When they got the cast, the plaster was still wet,” he recalled.

The sculptor began depicting thin, highly elongated figures of people, symbolizing loneliness and the precariousness of existence, after the Second World War, during which Giacometti was forced to move from France to Switzerland and settle in Geneva. Giacometti's works are considered among the most expensive on the modern art market. On the eve of the auction, experts estimated the cost of "Pointing Man" at $130 million - higher than the cost of the previous record holder, "Walking Man I" by the same author. The name of the buyer who paid $141.3 million for the sculpture has not been disclosed.

Sculpture "Walking Man I", 1961

Height: 183 cm

Price: $104.3 million

Place, time: Sotheby's, February 2010

Experts from The Wall Street Journal suggested that the anonymous buyer was Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who two years earlier bought a bronze statue of a woman created by Giacometti in 1956. However, Bloomberg later found out that the owner of the statue was Lily Safra, the widow of Brazilian banker Edmond Safra.

Sculpture "For the Love of the Lord", 2007

Dimensions: 17.1 x 12.7 x 19.1 cm

Price: $100 million

Place, time: 2007

The sculpture, made by the famous British artist Damien Hirst from 2 kg of platinum, is a slightly reduced copy of the skull of a 35-year-old European man of the 18th century. The diamond slots (8,601 in total) are laser cut, the jaw is made of platinum, and the teeth are real. The skull is crowned with a pink diamond weighing 52.4 carats. The work cost the British artist, famous for his controversial installations using animal corpses in formaldehyde, £14 million.

Hirst claimed that the name of the sculpture was inspired by the words of his mother when she asked him: For the love of God, what are you going to do next? ("For God's sake, what are you doing now?"). For the love of God is a verbatim quote from the First Epistle of John.

Sculpture "Head", 1910-1912

Height: 65 cm

Price: $59.5 million

Place, time: Christie's, June 2010

Modigliani did not study sculpture for long - from 1909 to 1913, when the artist returned to painting again, including due to tuberculosis. "Head", sold at Christie's, is part of a collection of seven sculptures "Pillars of Tenderness", which the author exhibited in 1911 in the studio of the Portuguese artist Amadeo de Souza-Cordoso. All works are distinguished by a pronounced oval head, almond-shaped eyes, long, thin nose, small mouth and elongated neck.Experts also draw analogies between Modigliani's sculpture and the famous bust of Queen Nefertiti, which is kept in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin.

Sculpture "Balloon Dog (orange)", 1994-2000

Dimensions: 307.3 x 363.2 x 114.3 cm

Price: $58 million

Place, time: Christie's, November 2013

Sculpture of the Lioness of Guennol, circa 3000-2800 BC.

Height: 8.26 cm

Price: $57.1 million

Place, time: Sotheby's, January 2007

Created in Ancient Mesopotamia about 5,000 years ago, the limestone figurine was found in 1931 in Iraq, near Baghdad. There are two holes preserved in the lioness's head for a cord or chain: it was intended to be worn around the neck. Since 1948, the work belonged to the famous American collector Alistair Bradley Martin and was exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. When announcing the decision to sell the sculpture, Martin promised to use the proceeds for charity.

The antique "Lioness" set a record price for sculptures in 2007 at Sotheby's in New York, displacing Picasso's bronze "Head of a Woman" from first place, which was sold less than a month earlier for $29.1 million. The final price for the sculpture exceeded the initial price more than three times.Five buyers took part in the competition for the figurine, the winner of the auction wished to remain anonymous.

Sculpture "Diego's Big Head", 1954

Height: 65 cm

Price: $53.3 million

Place, time: Christie's, May 2010

The bronze sculpture depicts Alberto Giacometti's younger brother Diego, who was the Swiss master's favorite model. There are several “Heads”; the last of the series was sold at Sotheby’s in 2013 for $50 million. “Diego’s Big Head” was cast for installation on a street square in New York; due to the death of the author, work on it was suspended. Estimate of the sculpture , which went under the hammer at Christie's, was $25-35 million.

Giacometti has been in the top 10 most expensive artists in the world since 2002, after selling several of the artist’s works at Christie’s. The most expensive figurine sold then was the third of eight copies of the “Cage” sculpture - it was valued at $1.5 million. However, 2010 became a landmark year for the artist, when Giacometti’s works began to be valued at the level of Picasso’s paintings.

Sculpture "Nude female figure from the back IV", 1958

Height: 183 cm

Price: $48.8 million

Place, time: Christie's, November 2010

Experts call the bronze bas-relief "Nude Female Figure from the Back IV" the most striking of the four works in the series "Standing with her back to the viewer", and the entire series - the greatest creation of modernist sculpture of the 20th century.

Until 2010, none of the sculptures from this cycle were put up for auction, although the bas-relief sold at Christie's is not the only one: a plaster cast for each series was cast in 12 copies at once. The height of one figure is 183 cm, weight - more than 270 kg Now the complete series of "Standing with His Back to the Spectator" are kept in nine leading museums in the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London and the Pompidou Center in Paris. Only two copies remained in private collections, one of which was sold under the hammer.

"Female Nude from the Back IV" was originally estimated at $25-35 million, and the amount paid for it was a record for a Matisse work ever sold at auction.

Sculpture "Madame L.R.", 1914-1917

Price: $37.2 million

Place, time: Christie's, February 2009

Wooden figurine of Madame L.R. was created by Brancusi in 1914-1917. This is one of his most famous works. It is believed that "Madame L.R." conveys the traditional style of Carpathian carving and the influence of African art on the author’s work. The sculpture was sold in 2009 at Christie's as part of the art collection of French couturier Yves Saint Laurent.

Sculpture "Tulips", 1995-2004

Price: $33.7 million

Place, time: Christie's, November 2012

“The numbers on the price tag sometimes seem astronomical to me. But people pay such sums because they dream of joining the art process. Their right,” Jeff Koons reasoned in an interview with Interview magazine after his “Tulips” were sold for $33. 7 million Koons is called the most successful American artist after Warhol.

The sculpture, which according to the author’s intention reveals the concept of childhood innocence, was bought in 2012 by one of the most extravagant heroes of Las Vegas, casino owner and billionaire Steve Wynn. He decided to showcase this acquisition at Wynn Las Vegas: the businessman adheres to the idea of "public art" and often displays items from his collection at the resorts he owns.