A person with no trace of Arachnophobia recently splurged nearly $33 million for a larger-than-life, scarier-than-usual bronze sculpture of the arachnid. Louise Bourgeois’ 1996 Spider, stands over 10 feet tall and over 18 feet across. It bagged a whopping $32.8 million, including fees, at a sale in New York on Thursday. The spider sculpture done by French-American artist Louise Bourgeois was completed in 1996 and is one of four enormous spiders to go under the block.
Bourgeois’ Spiders are recognized as an absolute chef-d’oeuvre. While the owner remained unidentified, the piece was sold by the Fundacao Itau of Brazil, which acquired the work more than two decades ago. The artist lived for 98 years before passing away in 2010.
Kelsey Leonard, head of Sotheby’s Contemporary Evening Auction in New York, said that to see the sculpture “make both a record-breaking price for Louise Bourgeois and also become the most valuable sculpture ever made by a woman artist is a truly special moment. Bourgeois’ Spiders are undoubtedly a real masterpiece of 20th-century art. Beloved across the globe, these powerful yet tender sculptures hold a commanding presence, one that was on full display in our galleries this season,” Leonard added.
