A 1955 bronze bust by Alberto Giacometti estimated at $70 million failed to sell at Sotheby’s modern evening auction in New York on Tuesday.
The main lot at the auction, the Giacometti sculpture, exhibited at the 1956 Venice Biennale failed to sell.
The work was offered without a guarantee, at $59 million. Though a handful of bids got the price up to $64 million, the lot was pulled after four minutes without being sold.
“Sales are often managed and orchestrated but this was an organic auction moment,” Sotheby’s CEO Charles Stewart told the Wall Street Journal. “But we stand by the importance of the work.”
The artist’s auction record, Pointing Man (1947), currently stands at $141.3 million, more than double the bust’s estimate; that price was achieved in 2015.
Main Image: Grande tête mince (Grande tête de Diego), Sotheby's