Sculpture by Romanian Brâncuși could set new record at upcoming auction

The sculpture La Jeune Fille Sophistiquee (Portrait de Nancy Cunard) by Romanian-born Constantin Brâncuși could bring an impressive return to its owners after going on auction this May, Blomberg reported. The brass sculpture will be part of Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art auction to be held in New York on May 15. Its owners acquired it in 1955 for USD 5,000. Today, the sculpture is evaluated at more than USD 70 million, and could bring a 1,400,000% return over 63 years, according to Bloomberg. This would exceed the USD 57.36 million fetched by Brâncuși’s 1913 bronze cast La muse endormie (Sleeping Muse) in 2017. The sum was almost double the initial estimate price of USD 20- USD 30 million, and a new record for a sculpture of the artist. In 2009, Brâncuși’s Madame LR (Portrait de Mme LR) sold for USD 37.6 million at Christie’s Paris. The record for the most expensive sculpture sale is held by an Alberto Giacometti statue, which sold for USD 140 million in 2015. La Jeune Fille Sophistiquée is considered the only bronze model of Brâncuși’s portrait of Nancy Cunard, an Anglo-American heiress and writer known as a patron of artists in Paris in between the two world wars. Tristan Tzara, Marcel Duchamp, Ezra Pound and James Joyce were some of the names in her circle. The sculpture’s owners, Elizabeth and Frederick Stafford, lent it throughout the years for display to various museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, or the Georges Pompidou Center, among others. Like Brâncuși, Frederick Stafford was born in Romania, from where he left in the 1930s. Exhibition on Romanian Constantin Brâncuşi opens at Pompidou Málaga Romania postpones returning the donations to failed Brancusi sculpture campaign (Photo: Paul Kasmin Gallery Facebook Page) editor@romania-insider.com