Giacometti sculpture sells for $104.3 mln, sets world record

A 1960 Alberto Giacometti sculpture went under the hammer for 65 million pounds ($104.3), becoming the world's most expensive artwork ever sold at an auction, Sotheby's press service has said.

A 1960 Alberto Giacometti sculpture went under hammer for 65 million pounds ($104.3), becoming the world's most expensive artwork ever sold at an auction, Sotheby's press service has said.

It took bidders eight minutes to reach the hammer price for the life-size bronze sculpture, "Walking Man I" (L'Homme qui marche I").

An anonymous buyer made the record bid by phone.

The previous record was set six years ago by an unknown buyer, who acquired Pablo Picasso's 1906 portrait "Boy With a Pipe" for $104.2 million, also at Sotheby's.

The auction house garnered 146.8 million pounds ($234.6) during its Wednesday's modern art sale, the highest ever total for a London auction.

Other top lots of the sale included Gustav Klimt's "Church in Cassone (Landscape with Cypresses)" ($43.2 million), Paul Cezanne's "Pichet et fruits sur une table" ($18.9 million), and Henri Matisse's "Femme couchee" ($7 million).

LONDON, February 4 (RIA Novosti)