Market boost or one-off? Record price for Walking Man (News Feature)

By Anna Tomforde Feb 4, 2010, 14:24 GMT

London - Alberto Giacometti described his 1961 life-size bronze of a spindly man walking as the 'humble figure of an ordinary man and a symbol of humanity.'

But the record-breaking sale of 'L'Homme Qui Marche I' for 65 million pounds (104.3 million dollars) at auction house Sotheby's in London had nothing humble about it.

According to Sotheby's, the 182-centimetre tall figure set a new world record for any work of art ever sold at auction, beating the 2004 sale of Picasso's Garcon a la Pipe in New York for 104.1 million dollars - exchange rates taken into account.

The fierce bidding and sky-high price for the arresting sculpture prompted an instant debate among experts on whether it was the rarity of the piece that provided the record-breaking result or whether it indicated that confidence had returned to the top layer of the art market.

'There was a genuine sense of anticipation in the auction room...You could smell the money,' wrote the Guardian Thursday.

Those wishing to detect a new boom after the recession scare were further buoyed by Sotheby's figures which showed that Wednesday night's Impressionist and Modern Art sale yielded a total of 146.8 million pounds - the highest ever for a sale held by the leading auction house in London.

But despite declaring that she was 'euphoric' about the result, Melanie Core, deputy chairman of Sotheby's in Britain, struck a cautious note on offering a wider interpretation.

'The price is a reflection of the extraordinary importance of this exceptionally rare masterpiece and it is important that one understands this price is not reflective of the whole art market,' she told the Daily Telegraph.

'It is reflective of the huge interest from major collectors around the world for quality,' she stressed. The challenge had been to 'persuade the owners of great artworks to consign them to auction in an uncertain market.'

Speculation was rife Thursday that the anonymous telephone buyer who beat off 10 rivals in eight minutes of fast and furious bidding would have been a 'wealthy individual,' interested in the status and the rarity of the piece.

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, who is known to be a Giacometti fan, was a popular guess, though he was reported to have denied that he was the buyer.

For the individual who purchased the Walking Man, the sensation of a 'once in a lifetime opportunity' would have have played an overriding role, arts consultant Henry Lydiate said.

'I'm not shocked by the huge price tag,' he said.

However, others believed that the sale, which included major paintings by Klimt, Renoir, Kirchner, Matisse and Cezanne, signalled a more general trend of big money returning to the art market.

'The Giacometti was not a one-off ... If there was any doubt the top end of the art market is back on track it was dispelled' by the record result of the overall sale, the Guardian said.

There was no doubt the Giacometti sale was a coup for Commerzbank, Germany's second-biggest bank, which offered the sculpture for sale from the artistic treasure trove of the smaller Dresdner Bank which it took over at the height of the recession.

'Of course we are pleased about this great success,' a spokeswoman for Commerzbank in Germany said Thursday. The proceeds would be used to support the bank's charitable foundations and provide funds to leading German museums in Dresden, Frankfurt and Berlin.