Billionaire Steve A Cohen Purchases Alberto Giacometti $100m Chariot

Steve A Cohen

It was an astronomical result by anyones estimation Alberto Giacometti’s “Chariot,” which sold for $100,965,000 broke the hundred million dollar ceiling. It was also the highest single lot accounting for 1/4 of the total in a sale at Sotheby’s, which included 74 lots, in its Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale. Last Tuesday the hedge fund billionaire and super-collector Steve A. Cohen, purchased this masterpiece. David Norman, co-chairman of Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern department worldwide, bid on his behalf and this was the only bid placed for the sculpture.

Sotheby’s Giacometti was a disappointment as they expected to set “a new world record” for sculpture, beating the $104.3 million paid for Giacometti’s Walking Man by the Billionaire Lilly Safra in London in 2010.

“Chariot,” was produced in an edition of six. The other castings are in the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, the National Gallery in Washington, the Giacometti Museum in Zurich, and MoMA. There are two others in private hands including this version.

 “It’s one of the great 20th-century sculptures,” said Manhattan art dealer, William Acquavella. “Steve is a very serious, very astute collector. . . He also has just the right instincts, ones that can’t be learned from reading art history books,” Acquavella stated to the NY Times.

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