ART + BEAT

CHARIOT

Albert Giacometti

1901 - 1966

101,000,000.

( a hundred and one million dollars )

From the NYT : The lone bidder who spent $101 million at Sotheby’s last Tuesday night for Giacometti’s “Chariot,’’ a 1950 sculpture of a spindly woman riding atop a chariot, was the hedge fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen, experts with knowledge of the sale said Monday. The sculpture, which came from the collection of Alexander Goulandris, a member of the Greek shipping family, is considered among the artist’s finest. 

“It’s one of the great 20th-century sculptures,’’ said William Acquavella, the Manhattan art dealer. For months before the auction, experts predicted that there would be a torrent of bidders for “Chariot,’’ and that the price, they guessed, would most likely top the $104.3 million that Lily Safra, the London-based billionaire, had paid at Sotheby’s four years ago for another Giacometti, “Walking Man I.’’ 

But the night of the auction it seemed all the talk just scared most buyers off. The only bidder was Mr. Cohen, who worked through David Norman, co-chairman of Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern art department worldwide. 

“Steve is a very serious, very astute collector,’’ Mr. Acquavella said. “He also has just the right instincts, ones that can’t be learned from reading art history books.’’