‘Rabbit’ sculpture sells for $91.1m, set auction record
Published on: Friday, May 17, 2019
NEW YORK: A sculpture by American artist Jeff Koons sold on Wednesday for $91.1 million at an auction organised by Christie’s in New York – a record price for a living artist.
“Rabbit” (pic), a stainless steel casting of an inflatable rabbit, was the star of the auction house’s spring sale and overtook the previous record set by British painter David Hockney’s “Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)”, which sold last November at Christie’s for $90.3 million.
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It was a return to the top for Koons, 64, whose “Balloon Dog (Orange)” for five years held the record for highest price reached at auction for a living artist after its 2013 sale for $58.4 million.
The selling price of “Rabbit” was only $80 million, but once commissions and fees were added, the final total rose to $91.075 million.
In an unusual turn for an art auction at this price range, the buyer of “Rabbit” was actually in the room during the sale.
Wednesday’s milestone came two years after Christie’s in New York set the record for most expensive work of art known to have been sold with the sale of Leonardo de Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi” for $450 million.
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Created by Koons in 1986, “Rabbit” is among the best-known works by the artist, who built a reputation for challenging art world conventions.
He has exhibited his larger-than-life creations worldwide, including a 2008 showing in France’s historic Chateau of Versailles that so jarred French traditionalists a small group of them protested outside the event, demanding Koons’s works be sent to “Disneyland”.
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At 41 inches (1.04 meters) in height, “Rabbit” was auctioned from the collection of deceased publishing mogul S.I. Newhouse.
Before his death in 2017, his empire included Conde Nast, which published magazines like Vogue, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair.
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