Alberto Giacometti's Walking Man Sculpture Sells for $104 Million
The Wall Street Journalreports that Alberto Giacometti's 6-foot sculpture of a walking man sold for $104.3 million
at a Sotheby's auction in London. It is the highest auction price ever paid for a piece of artwork. The WSJ says the high bid for Walking Man I could signal a resurgence in the art market.
The 6-foot-tall bronze depicts a wiry man in mid-stride, his right foot jutting forward, his head erect and and his arms hanging at his side. Giacometti, a modern master known for his haunting sculptures of blank-faced Everymen, cast the work 60 years ago as part of a commission to plant several of his bronze figures on Chase Manhattan Bank's Pine Street plaza in New York City. The artist famously struggled with the project, eventually quitting it but casting stand-alone versions of several of the planned figures, including "Walking Man I."
The price breaks the existing $104.2 million auction record, set six years ago at Sotheby's, for Pablo Picasso's 1906 portrait "Boy With a Pipe," whose buyer remains unknown.
Art Daily has a photo here that gives you a good idea of the statue's size. You can read more about Alberto Giacometti here on artcyclopedia.com.
The Wall Street Journal 
