This is a list of the highest known prices paid for

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...

Most valuable sculpture

Alberto Giacometti Alberto Giacometti (, , ; 10 October 1901 – 11 January 1966) was a Swiss sculptor, painter, draftsman and printmaker. Beginning in 1922, he lived and worked mainly in Paris but regularly visited his hometown Borgonovo to see his family and ...

's ''

L'Homme au doigt ''L'Homme au doigt'' (, "The Man with the Finger"; also called ''Pointing Man'' or ''Man Pointing'') is a 1947 bronze sculpture by Alberto Giacometti, that became the most expensive sculpture ever when it sold for US$141.3 million on 11 May 2015 ...

'' was auctioned for $141.3m at Christie's in May 2015, the highest price for any sculpture at auction. Giacometti's ''

L'Homme qui marche I ''L’Homme qui marche I'' ( ''The Walking Man I'' or ''The Striding Man I'', lit. ''The Man who Walks I'') is the name of any one of the cast bronze sculptures that comprise six numbered editions plus four artist proofs created by Swiss ...

'' had previously achieved the highest price of any sculpture when it was auctioned by

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

in February 2010. Selling for US$104.3 million, it ranks amongst the most valuable works of art.Giacometti Sculpture 'L'Homme qui marche I' Fetches $104.3 Million, World Record: Sotheby's (PHOTO)
''

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

''. 5 April 2010. Accessed 20 October 2011. In 2005,

Constantin Brâncuși Constantin Brâncuși (; February 19, 1876 – March 16, 1957) was a Romanian sculptor, painter and photographer who made his career in France. Considered one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th-century and a pioneer of modernism, ...

's ''

Bird in Space ''Bird in Space'' () is a series of sculptures by Romanian sculptor Constantin Brâncuși. The original work was created in 1923 and made of marble. This sculpture is also known for containing seven marble figures and nine bronze casts. Brancusi ...

'' broke records when it sold for $27.5 million. The previous world record was another work by Brâncuși called ''Danaide'', which was sold for $18.1 million in May 2002.Sculpture breaks auction record

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadc ...

. 5 May 2005. Accessed 20 October 2011. The 2005 record stood for two years until a highly regarded work of antiquity surpassed the price. '' Artemis and the Stag'', found in the 1920s at a Roman construction site, fetched $28.6 million in June 2007.West, Nina P
Artemis At The Top
Artfact.com,

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

. 19 June 2007. Accessed 20 October 2011. The record would only stand for a few months, with a work by

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

, '' Tete de femme (Dora Maar)'', surpassing it by half a million US dollars in November 2007.Crow, Kelly
Sotheby's "Aggressive" Sale Falls Flat
''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

''. 8 November 2007. Accessed 20 October 2011. In December 2007, the sale of the Guennol Lioness, a statue from around 3000 BC, nearly doubled the previous record price when it sold for $57.2 million. It is the fifth-most valuable sculpture to date (2018) and the most valuable piece from antiquity.Lion sculpture gets record price

. 6 December 2007. Accessed 20 October 2011.

Damien Hirst Damien Steven Hirst (; né Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector. He is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingd ...

has claimed that his sculpture ''

For the Love of God ''For the Love of God'' is a sculpture by artist Damien Hirst produced in 2007. It consists of a platinum cast of an 18th-century human skull encrusted with 8,601 flawless diamonds, including a pear-shaped pink diamond located in the forehead tha ...

'', which consists of a

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Pla ...

cast of a human skull encrusted with 8,601 flawless

diamond Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, b ...

s, was sold for £50 million (around US$75 million) in August 2007. The truth of this private sale, which was to an unknown consortium, has been called into question. If the sale did take place, ''For the Love of God'' would become the second-most expensive sculpture ever sold and would have fetched the highest price for a sculpture by a living artist. 2010 was a good year for record-breaking sculpture prices but it did not continue into 2011.

Jeff Koons Jeffrey Lynn Koons (; born January 21, 1955) is an American artist recognized for his work dealing with popular culture and his sculptures depicting everyday objects, including balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror-Surface fi ...

' porcelain ''

Pink Panther ''The Pink Panther'' is an American media franchise primarily focusing on a series of comedy-mystery films featuring an inept French police detective, Inspector Jacques Clouseau. The franchise began with the release of the classic film ''The Pi ...

'' was estimated to fetch a value of up to $30 million, but only achieved just over half that. Louise Bourgeois holds the record ($32.1 million in 2019) for ''

Spider Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...

'', the highest price paid for an attributable sculpture by a woman (since the sculptor of '' Guennol Lioness'' is unknown).

Auction details

All the most expensive sculptures have been sold by one of two

auction An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition e ...

houses: Sotheby's and

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is owned by Groupe Artémi ...

. Sotheby's has hosted the auctions of the two works that reached the highest price, one in London and the other in New York. Only three of the top ten have auctioned outside of New York; one in London and two in Paris. The top ten highest value sculptures were made by seven different people, two of whom are unknown and will never be identified. An

sculpture is the most valuable modern work, and he has three more entries in the top ten. Four

sculptures are featured on the list,Fernández, G
Most Expensive Sculptures Ever Sold
''theartwolf.com''. November 2010. Accessed 19 October 2011. and Jeff Koons' work appears three times. Although

only appears once he appears numerous times in the list of most expensive paintings. Several buyers have chosen to remain anonymous, while others publicly celebrate their purchases.

Most expensive sculpture by a female artist

Louise Bourgeois’ 1996 ''

'' is the most expensive sculpture by a woman artist, and last sold for $32.1 million in 2019.

List of highest prices paid

The highest prices paid for sculptures :Most Expensive Sculpture In The World
. ''Art-Katalog.com''. Accessed 4 November 2011.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Most expensive sculptures Sculpture

sculptures Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...