Amedeo Modigliani - Tête 1910-1912
Tête 1910-1912 65cm Limestone
Sold for: USD 52,6 million
Auction house: Christie's, Paris
Sale date: June 2010
Seller: Gaston Levy
Buyer: Anonymous bidder
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Tête is a limestone sculpture by Amedeo Modigliani and is amongst the most expensive works of art ever sold. In 2010 an anonymous telephone bidder purchased Tête for €43.2 million at Christie's in Paris. The sale was a record at a French auction and placed the sculpture amongst the most expensive ever sold. An anonymous telephone bidder won the auction. Since 1927 the piece had been in the collection of Gaston Lévy, an artist and acquaintance of Modigliani.
Tête is one of 27 known sculptures by Modigliani and was made between 1910 and 1912. The limestone head stands over 2 feet tall and depicts the head of a woman wearing a tribal mask with her hair swept back. It was first exhibited at the 1912 Salon d'Automne (Autumn Salon).
In the creation of Tête, Modigliani was clearly inspired by the geometric designs of African sculpture and the simplification of form evident in the work of his mentor Constantin Brâncuși. Auction house Christie's described the piece in an announcement press release as: "Pared-down to a series of simple geometric forms, rigidly frontal and rigorously symmetrical, Tête emanates a feeling of haunting mystery."