LILY SAFRA PAID $103.4 MILLION FOR GIACOMETTI, DEALERS SAY

Scott Reyburn reports for Bloomberg that the London-based billionaire Lily Safra is the buyer of the Alberto Giacometti sculpture that fetched a record $103.4 million at an auction in London on February 3. The information comes via two dealers with knowledge of the matter who declined to be named.

Safra, born in Brazil, is the widow of the Lebanese banker Edmond J. Safra, who died in a fire in his Monaco apartment in 1999. She has a net worth of one billion dollars, according to Forbes’s 2009 listing of the world’s wealthiest individuals, and has a home in London’s Belgravia district.

Giacometti’s 1961 bronze, Walking Man I, was offered at Sotheby’s London sale of Impressionist and modern art. After eight minutes of competition among at least four telephone bidders and two individuals in the room, the price with auction-house fees reached $103.4 million.

“It was a freak result,” said Philip Hoffman, chief executive of the London-based Fine Art Fund. “But there are wealthy people out there desperate to buy rare pieces, and when something important comes up with a sensible estimate the bidding goes crazy.”

Sotheby’s version of the life-size statue––one of a numbered edition of six, plus four artist’s proofs––was the first example cast in the Swiss artist’s lifetime offered at auction, the company said. It had been part of the collection of Germany-based Dresdner Bank AG, which was bought by Commerzbank AG in January 2009.