Alberto Giacometti’s Grande Tête Mince Sculpture Fetches $50 Milllon

Alberto Giacometti’s Grande Tête Mince has set a record by going under the hammer for $50,005,000, meeting its high estimate. The Swiss sculptor and painter’s younger brother Diego has played muse to this sculpture and many other artworks.

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This extraordinary edition has never been offered at auction before, which boosted the stakes. The bronze bust figure was conceived in 1954 and cast in bronze in 1955. Standing at 25 1/2 inch, it is inscribed with the signature Alberto Giacometti, with the foundry mark Susse Fondeur Paris and numbered6/6.

It is also known as Grande tête de Diego and is described as a robust personification of the Existentialist movement during the heated years of the Cold War. Of all his representations of the human figure, this sculpture is without question Giacometti’s most formally radical, visually engaging and emotionally impactful. It appears to part lips as if about to speak and only those with deep understanding for art are empowered to appreciate this personification.

Giacometti had briefed, “To me  sculpture is not an object of beauty but a way for me to try to understand a bit better what I see in a given head, to understand a bit better what appeals to me about it and what I admire in it.”

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It was a part of Sotheby’s robust sale of Impressionist & Modern Art scheduled on 6th November 2013 in New York. The auction totaled $290,244,000 based on global participation with the top lot of the sale being Alberto Giacometti’s Grande Tête Mince. The $290.2 million marks the second-highest total for an evening auction of Impressionist & Modern Art at Sotheby’s worldwide.

WSJ reports that New York dealer Bill Acquavella is the buyer of this $50 million bust.

Sotheby’s