By AFP
UNITED STATES: A sculpture by Edgar Degas bought Thursday for $41.6 million at Christie’s in New York, the very best value paid at public sale for a piece by the French artist, whereas a bronze by Pablo Picasso additionally broke a file.
The Degas sculpture — “Petite danseuse de quatorze ans” — is a fragile bronze with a brown patina depicting a younger ballerina in a muslin skirt with a ribbon in her hair.
It shouldn’t be the unique — which is on show on the National Gallery of Art in Washington — however a solid made by Adrien-Aurelien Hebrard 10 years after the 1917 dying of the impressionist.
That didn’t cease it from setting a brand new file for Degas, simply topping the earlier excessive of twenty-two.2 million euros set by one other model of the identical work in 2015.
The sculpture that bought on Thursday was one among 12 items from the gathering of Anne Bass, an American businesswoman who died in 2020. She was the patron of a number of main American museums and the New York ballet, and was the spouse of billionaire oil inheritor Sid Bass.
Among her assortment have been two work by American expressionist Marc Rothko, of which “Untitled (Shades of red)” bought for $66.8 million, and three works by Claude Monet. His “Parlement, soleil couchant,” a darkish however luminous oil on canvas, bought for $75.96 million.
Christie’s additionally introduced that Picasso’s “Tete de femme (Fernande)” grew to become the artist’s most costly bronze ever bought at public sale, at $48.48 million.
The Spaniard held the file for the most costly work of twentieth Century art work ever bought at public sale till Monday night time, when an iconic portrait of Marilyn Monroe by American pop artist Andy Warhol introduced in $195 million. Picasso’s “Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ‘0’)” had beforehand set the file at $179.4 million in 2015.
