Sale of records in New York for animals by the French sculptor Lalanne

Several works by the sculptor have broken records such as “Nathalie’s Donkey” (2005) in bronze, wood, leather and bronze, which was bought for $2.6 million.

A giant bear, a winged rabbit, a rhinoceros, a donkey that is a desk: 70 animal sculptures in bronze or stone by Frenchman François-Xavier Lalanne, the late visual artist and posthumous star of the world art market, have been sold for $59 million (54 million euros) at auction on Thursday, October 10 in New York, Christie’s announced.

In its prestigious headquarters at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, Christie’s put off – for four hours in the room, on the phone and on the Internet – models of wild, domestic or imaginary animals, were cut and shaped by this sculptor who worked with his wife Claude, he also died, in their workshop in Fontainebleau, south of Paris.

The 70 works that were being sold belonged to François-Xavier Lalanne (1927-2008) and belonged to his daughter Dorothée Lalanne. They reached 58.9 million dollars (53.9 million euros), announced Christie’s, which had hoped for 16 to 23 million (15 to 21 million euros).

The company, owned by French billionaire François Pinault’s Artémis, welcomed him in a press release “great results” and of “enthusiastic” of his clients: more than 50% came from America, 15% from Asia and 30% from Europe, in a global art market that has been declining since 2023 due to the international crisis.

It was Lalanne’s works that broke records in their category A very large centaur (2001) in patinated bronze, sold for 7.5 million dollars (6.9 million euros), and the monument A very big bear (2009) sold for 6.1 million dollars (5.6 million euros).

Sculpture by the French artist François-Xavier Lalanne presented in a preview at Christie’s on 4 October 2024, when works by the sculptor were sold from the personal collection of his daughter, Dorothée Lalanne . (TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP)

Very original Nathalie’s ass (2005) in bronze, wood, leather and bronze, which the center opens to create an office, to buy for 2.6 million dollars (2.4 million euros).

Daphné Riou, an expert at Christie’s, praised the AFP “the greatest sculptor of the 20th century”enthusiastic “by nature” and who together with his wife Claude created a couple of visual artists “always on the border between art and design, full of humor, who refused to take themselves seriously”.

“The animal world includes all forms, as well as the mythical code attached to it, a wonderful code, because it exists as well in the head of a baby as (in) an old man- noble “naming François-Xavier Lalanne to Dorothée Lalanne, according to a 1991 interview published by the Artcurial notebooks.

Lalanne’s price exploded in 2009 at the Bergé-Saint Laurent collection auctions with 15 Claude Lalanne mirrors sold for 1.8 million euros. The following year, the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris gave the pair a retrospective, before Christie’s rival Sotheby’s sold a lot of 274 sculptures​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​front € 91 million euros.