Skinny man gets $104 million

[sinterest]

What the fudge? What determines the price of art? If I paid 104 mil for that, I would want to remain "unknown" too.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2010975415_artrecord04.html?syndication=rss






A life-size bronze sculpture of a man by Alberto Giacometti was sold in London Wednesday night to an unknown bidder for $104.3 million, breaking the record for a work of art purchased at auction.
It took just eight minutes of bidding for about 10 bidders to reach the hammer price for "Walking Man I," which opened at slightly more than $19 million, Sotheby's auction house said.
The mystery buyer bid by phone, and as the price kept rising, the bidding narrowed to two phone contenders bidding via a couple of Sotheby's employees.
The previous record was $104.1 million, for a 1905 Pablo Picasso, "Boy With a Pipe (The Young Apprentice)," at Sotheby's in New York in 2004.
Sotheby's had expected the sculpture to bring $19.2 million to $28.8 million.
The 6-foot-tall sculpture was cast in 1961 in an edition of six. The work by the 20th century Swiss-Italian artist, known for his depiction of postwar European existential angst, is one of the most recognizable images of modern art.
"Walking Man I" was sold by Dresdner Bank in Germany, which had acquired it in 1980.
It had been commissioned — along with a group of others bronzes — by the architect Gordon Bunshaft for Chase Manhattan Plaza in downtown Manhattan, where it was to stand alongside Bunshaft's 60-story glass-and-steel Chase headquarters.
Although the installation was never realized, some of the sculptures — and others Giacometti created as experiments for the project — were made; many, though, he destroyed.
The Giacometti was not the only work to fetch a high price at Sotheby's on Wednesday evening. A 1913 landscape by Gustav Klimt, "Church in Cassone — Landscape With Cypresses," brought $43.2 million from another telephone bidder.

[Dawildman]

What people believe is value is value. Seems like the exhibit has some historical worth.

I walked into the National Gallery of Art back in Fall of 1992. A museum I've known well all my life. At the time there was a whole large room devoted to an artist whose paintings consisted mostly of one to two bright stripes of paint running up and down and otherwise HUGE blank canvas. About as much talent required as drawing two blocks on s checkerboard.

I figure his mom and dad must have made a big donation to the exhibit.

[Underhill]

What I want to know is, how do I get in on this racket? I am a fair hand at rough sculpture and can paint gibberish as well as anyone....

[sinterest]

Originally Posted by Underhill

What I want to know is, how do I get in on this racket? I am a fair hand at rough sculpture and can paint gibberish as well as anyone....

You move to rural New England, get stinking drunk, knock your canvas on the floor and spill paint on it.
Or - as DW says, buy your attention with parents and/or friends' money.