A Constantin Brâncuși sculpture formerly owned by S. I. Newhouse, a media magnate who was at one time among the world’s top art collectors, sold at Christie’s on Monday night for a hammer price of $93 million, breaking the modernist sculptor’s auction record. With fees, the total came to $107.6 million
The work started with a $82 million bid and recieved half a dozen bids before selling to a buyer represented by Maria Los, deputy chairman, head of client advisory Americas. It recieved a gentle round of applause after it sold.
Danaïde, a bronze head dating to 1913, carried a $100 million estimate upon request going into the sale, placing it well above the artist’s current auction record. In 2021, the polished bronze and marble sculpture La jeune fille sophistiquée (Portrait de Nancy Cunard), dating to 1928/32, sold for $71.2 million at Christie’s New York in 2018. The next three results for Brâncuși are $57.3 million for La muse endormie, a patinated bronze with gold leaf sculpture that sold in 2017 at Christie’s New York; $29.2 million for the oak sculpture Madame L.R. (Portrait de Mme L.R.) at Christie’s Paris in 2009; and $27.5 million for the marble and stone sculpture Oiseau dans l’espace at Christie’s New York in 2005.
Danaïde is titled after the subject of a Greek myth, in which, per Christie’s, the brother of King Danaos demanded the King’s 50 daughters as wives for his sons. “By order of the king, the Danaïdes—with the exception of one—kill their husbands on their wedding night. As punishment, they are banished to Hades and condemned to filling jars from which the water quickly leaks out.” That myth was also taken up by Auguste Rodin, as well as other artists, around the same period as Brâncuși.
The just-sold Brâncuși sculpture references Egyptian sculpture and East Asian statues, with a gold leaf and black patina. There were six bronze casts made of the work, with four in institutional collections: the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Tate in London, and the Kunst Museum Winterthur in Switzerland. Per Christie’s, it is the only gilded example still in private hands.
Aside from the gilding, the sculpture was highly desired for its provenance. Prior to Newhouse, it was originally bought by Eugene and Agnes Meyer in 1914 at Brâncuși’s first solo exhibition at Alfred Stieglitz’s 291 Gallery in New York. It passed to his daughter who sold it to Newhouse in 2002 for $18.2 million, which set a record for the sale of a sculpture at the time.
Christie’s was clearly banking a lot on the sale, having enlisted actress Nicole Kidman for a two-minute ad produced by Studio 11F in which she walks into Christie’s New York headquarters to take a private view of the work.
