Just How Thin is Too Thin…

Walking Man I

With a flagrant disregard for the recession the world is currently mired in, records were shattered this week at Sotheby’s when Alberto Giacometti’s L’Homme Qui Marche I (Walking Man I) was sold for a whopping £58 million to an anonymous buyer, making it the most expensive object ever sold at auction.  One of only six casts created, the piece is said to be Giacometti’s most iconic figure; as it was with it that he first experimented with the walking man theme on a monumental scale. Bidding for the sculpture, which bears a startling resemblance to Kate Moss, started at £12 million pounds and rapidly rose in £1 and £2 million pound increments until reaching its staggering selling price.  The seller was a German bank, who obviously thought gold bullion was passé and decided to invest instead in modern art.  I am now considering a) moving to Germany where people are super-smart or b) spending my life savings on art, which with my savings will mean purchasing paintings from the crazy guy on the street corner across from the library. The sale is said to be indicative of the return of the art market after the bubble burst in late 2008, or could just be an indication of how much we love ‘thin’ in the modern world. 

Giacometti once said that if he was caught in a fire and had to choose between a Rembrandt and a cat, he would choose the cat and set him free; that between life and art he would choose life. I’d choose the Rembrandt.

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