One of Alberto Giacometti’s best-loved bronzes, “Walking Man I,” has broken the world record price for a work of art at auction, selling to an unidentified telephone bidder for $92.5 million, or $104.3 million with fees, at Sotheby’s in London on Wednesday night. The previous record was $104.1 million, paid for a 1905 Picasso, “Boy With a Pipe (The Young Apprentice),” at Sotheby’s in New York in 2004.
In an overflowing salesroom 10 bidders competed for the six-foot-tall sculpture, which was conceived in 1960 and cast a year later. The mystery buyer bid by phone to Philip Hook, an expert at Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern art department. As the price kept rising, the bidding narrowed to just two contenders: Mr. Hook and Bill Ruprecht, the chief executive of Sotheby’s, who was bidding for another telephone client. When the wining bid went to Mr. Hook, the salesroom burst into applause.
Full story: Giacometti Bronze Sets Auction Record at Sotheby’s via NYTimes.com