Giacometti's £65m bronze man breaks art auction record

A LIFE-SIZE bronze sculpture depicting the figure of a man by Alberto Giacometti was sold at auction yesterday for the world record price of £65,001,250.

• Auctioneer Henry Wyndam sells the sculpture Walking Man or L'Homme qui marche I

It took just eight minutes for bids to reach the hammer price after L'Homme Qui Marche I , or Walking Man I, opened at 12 million at Sotheby's in London.

The winning bid – the highest for any work of art ever sold at auction – was made by an anonymous buyer over the phone.

The 6ft tall sculpture, cast in 1961, is considered to be one of the most important by the 20th century Swiss artist.

It had been estimated to sell for between 12m and 18m.

But furious bidding saw more than ten rivals bump the price up to ever higher levels, eventually topping the 65m mark.

In so doing it beat the price of $104,168,000 (58,520,830) paid for the previous auction record-holder – Pablo Picasso's Garon la Pipe, or Boy With a Pipe, which was sold in New York in 2004.

In a bumper night for the auctioneer Sotheby's, one of the other highlights of the Impressionist and Modern Art sale also exceeded expectations.

Gustav Klimt's painting Kirche in Cassone, Church in Cassone, went for 26,921,250, far above the 12m to 18m estimate.

It was a record price for a Klimt landscape and the second highest auction bid for any work by the Austrian painter.

Paul Czanne's still life Pichet et fruits sur une table – "Pitcher and fruit on a table" – was sold for just under 12m.

Commenting on last night's record breaking sale, Melanie Clore, co-chairman worldwide of Sotheby's impressionist and modern art department, said: "We are thrilled to have sold these great works this evening and that they have been recognised for the masterpieces that they are.

"The competition which generated these exceptional results demonstrates the continued quest for quality that compels today's collectors."