Record price paid for "potent symbol of humanity" created by Swiss scuptor

Swiss sculpture becomes world's most expensive work of art at London auction

The art world, usually immune to astronomical sums, was stunned when Sotheby's sold a life-size bronze figure of a walking man by Ticinese sculptor Alberto Giacometti for a massive £65,001,250.

It was the highest price ever achieved for any work of art sold at auction anywhere in the world, and it confirmed Sotheby's, in London's New Bond Street, as the world's most successful auction house.

The 6ft tall sculpture easily broke the existing £58,520,830 auction record, set six years ago also at Sotheby's, but this time in their New York salesroom, for Pablo Picasso's 1906 portrait "Boy With a Pipe."

The sale itself started at £9 million and was all over in just eight minutes of furious bidding by ten collectors.

"L'homme Qui Marche" had long been considered the most important work ever created by the Swiss artist. Sotheby's called it "the pinnacle of Giacometti's experimentation with the human form" and said: "It is both a humble image of an ordinary man and a potent symbol of humanity."

It was cast in 1961 when Giacometti was 60 and was beginning to achieve international fame. He had been born in Borgonovo, Stampa, not far from the Swiss-Italian frontier, and studied at the School of Fine Arts in Geneva.

He died six years later in the Kantonsspital in Chur of heart disease and bronchitis and his body returned to Borgonovo for interment.

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