Brancusi's 'Bird in Space' soars to new auction record
Last Updated: Monday, May 9, 2005 | 9:43 AM ET
CBC Arts
Late Wednesday Bird in Space sold to an anonymous buyer for $27.45 million US at Christie's spring auction of Impressionist and modern art in New York. The marble-and-stone piece had been estimated to sell between $8 million and $12 million US.
In addition to setting a new auction record for a Brancusi work, the sale also set a new record "for any sculpture ever sold at auction," Christie's said in a statement. The previous record was also held by a Brancusi work: Danaide sold for $18.1 million US in 2002.
Created between 1922 and 1923, Bird in Space had been part of a private European collection since 1937.
Brancusi, who died in 1957, had originally trained as a carpenter and stonemason. When he began sculpting, the abstract pioneer drew from a range of artistic influences, including Auguste Rodin, the Impressionists and African and Asian art. His work moved away from pictorial representation and emphasized subtle, simple forms – sometimes polished, others roughly hewn.
Other works of art sold at the spring auction included Alberto Giacometti's sculpture Femme Leoni (1947), which fetched $8.4 million US; a Henry Moore bronze entitled Draped Reclining Mother and Baby that sold for $5.7 million US; Pablo Picasso's painting Tête et Main de Femme, which sold for $US13.4 million; and Paul Cézanne's Les Grands Arbres au Jas de Bouffan, which netted $11.8 million US.
