Talk about creature comforts!
Thursday at Christie’s New York, a sale of 70 sculptures of whimsical animals and mythical beasts by the late French artist François-Xavier Lalanne brought in a total of nearly $59 million, with a 10-foot-tall bronze bear going for $6.1 million, a record, and a towering, 11-foot-tall centaur fetching $7.5 million, an eye-watering nine times its low estimate.
The lots were drawn from the personal collection of Lalanne’s daughter, Dorothée, marking their first appearance at auction. It was a lively, four-hour sale, with bids streaming in from around the world. All of the sculptures sold, with 97 percent of them exceeding their high estimates.
In addition to the record-setting sales of the bear, Le Très Grand Ours, and the centaur, Très Grand Centaure, two other sculptures bested past prices including Lapin à Vent de Tourtour, a 2002 sculpture of a hybrid rabbit creature that realized nearly $3 million; and Oiseleur II, an angelic painted wood figure, which nabbed a cool $1.5 million.
In total, 14 lots commanded more than $1 million.
“The excitement in [the] buildup to the sale was mirrored by our clients’ enthusiasm, and the results were everything we hoped for and more,” said Alex Heminway, Christie’s international head of design, said in a press release.
The sale had already started turning heads before the gavel even struck, due to an immersive preview designed by French fashion designer Simon Porte Jacquemus. The installation was broken down into five parts showcasing different groupings of Lalanne’s work, highlighting the humor and levity at the core of his practice.
The results demonstrate that the market for François-Xavier Lalanne, who together with his wife, Claude, made up the duo known as Les Lalannes, shows no signs of cooling down. An auction of Les Lalanne work broke records in December 2022 by grossing more than $77 million total. Roughly a year ago François-Xavier’s first bronze sculpture of a rhinoceros— Rhinocrétaire I, 1964—sold for over $19 million, shattering previous prices.
