Jeff Koons' $91M 'Rabbit' sculpture sets new auction record

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A playful rabbit sculpture by Jeff Koons has become the most expensive work by a living artist ever to sell at auction.

The American artist&#;s &#;Rabbit,&#; a stainless steel figure measuring just over 3 feet tall, sold for more than $91 million Wednesday evening at Christie&#;s in New York, smashing auction estimates.

The new record comes just six months after David Hockney&#;s &#;Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)&#; set a new benchmark for a living artist, when it sold for $90.3 million last November &#; also at Christie&#;s in New York. The British painter&#;s artwork had itself overtaken Koons&#; &#;Balloon Dog (Orange)&#; sculpture, the previous record-holder, which went for $58.4 million in .

Christie&#;s initially estimated that Koons&#; faceless &#;Rabbit&#; would sell for between $50 and $70 million. But after more than 10 minutes&#; bidding, the winning offer came in at $80 million which &#; including auctioneer&#;s fees &#; resulted in a final sale price of $91,075,000.

Prior to Wednesday&#;s sale, Christie&#;s had described the sculpture as &#;one of the most iconic works of 20th-century art.&#;

&#;It is crisp and cool in its appearance, yet taps into the visual language of childhood,&#; read a sale preview on the auction house&#;s website. &#;Its lack of facial features renders it inscrutable, yet its form evokes fun and frivolity.&#;

The American artist's 'Rabbit' sold for more than $91M.

Courtesy Christie's

Koons&#; sculpture is one from of an edition of three, plus one artist&#;s proof. Another is kept at the Broad Foundation, in Los Angeles, while the third has been promised to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago by its owners, according to Christie&#;s.

The edition featured in Wednesday&#;s auction came from the collection of the late media mogul S.I. Newhouse. It has not been publicly exhibited for more than 30 years.

&#;This was the piece that I have personally admired for 20 years, and always (had) dreamed of having for sale,&#; said Alex Rotter, chairman of the post-war and contemporary art department at Christie&#;s, during a press conference.

&#;You can think of Koons whatever you (like), but this is his best work,&#; he added.

A painting from Claude Monet's "Haystacks" series sold for $110.7 million in May , making it the most expensive Impressionist artwork ever to be bought at auction.

Sothebys

David Hockney's "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)" set a new auction record for a living artist when it sold for $90.3 million in November . That figure has since been overtaken by Jeff Koons' "Rabbit" sculpture, which sold for more than $91 million.

Courtesy Christie's

Zao Wou-Ki's abstract painting "Juin-Octobre " has become the most expensive painting to ever sell at auction in Hong Kong.

Courtesy Sotheby's Hong Kong

Pablo Picasso, Les femmes d'Alger (Version 'O'), (). Oil on canvas -- Price Realized: $179,365,000 &#;

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Pablo Picasso's Les femmes d'Alger previously held the auction record after selling for $179.4 million in .

courtesy christies

Edvard Munch, The Scream, (). Pastel on board in the original frame -- Price realized: $119,922,500 &#;

The sale of Edvard Munch's "The Scream" to billionaire Leon Black for $119.9 million in marked more than a new art record: it was the first time that a pastel, rather than an oil or acrylic painting, came anywhere near achieving such a price.

BAS CZERWINSKI/AFP/AFP/Getty Images

Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild, (). Oil on canvas -- Price realized: $34,190,757 &#;

Rock star Eric Clapton sold his "Abstraktse Bild" by art star Gerhard Richter in for £21.3 million, establishing a new record for a living artist and the highest price ever paid for a Gerhard Richter painting.

VOLKER HARTMANN/DDP/AFP/Getty Images

Vincent van Gogh, Portrait of Dr. Gachet, (). Oil on canvas -- Price Realized: $82,500,000 &#;

Vincent van Gogh's "Portrait of Dr. Gachet" rocked the art world in when it sold to Tokyo's Kobayashi gallery for $82.5 million at Christie's -- more than twice the previous auction record.

courtesy sothebys

Pablo Picasso, Garçon a la Pipe, (). Oil on canvas -- Price Realized: $104,168,000 &#;

Pablo Picasso's "Garçon a la Pipe" broke the $100 million ceiling when it sold at Sotheby's for over $104 million in May, -- the first painting to exceed the record set in for the "Dr.Gachet."

STAN HONDA/AFP/AFP/Getty Images

Lucian Freud, Benefits Supervisor Resting, (). Oil on canvas -- Price Realized: $56,165,000 &#;

The portrait of the ample-bodied Sue Tilley, a British government worker, was one of four such paintings the British artist produced of the woman he called "Fat Sue." The portrait achieved a record for the artist when it sold at Christie's New York in May, .

courtesy christies

Amedeo Modigliani, Nu couché, (-). Oil on canvas -- Price Realized: $170,405,000 &#;

Appetite for Modigliani's work had already been on the rise when this rare nude came up for sale. It set a new record for the artist -- and one of the highest prices ever set at auction -- when it sold at Christie's in November, to a Chinese billionaire bidding by .

TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/AFP/Getty Images

Record-breaking art sales

More than 50 other artworks were sold at the evening sale, generating a total of almost $540 million. Other notable lots included Robert Rauschenberg &#;Buffalo II,&#; which set a new record for the artist&#;s work at just under $89 million, and one of Louise Bourgeois&#; towering bronze &#;Spider&#; sculptures, which went for over $32 million.

The sale continues a record-breaking week for art in New York. A painting from Claude Monet&#;s &#;Haystacks&#; series went for $110.7 million at Sotheby&#;s Tuesday to become the most expensive Impressionist artwork ever to sell at auction.

The success of Rabbit, more than any of the other works in the &#;Statuary&#; series that Koons had shown at the Sonnabend Gallery, is all the more impressive considering it was the only sculpture in the group that was almost not made. In a moment of inspiration Koons had sketched out &#; on a bar napkin &#; ideas for nine of the 10 sculptures in the series, ranging from Louis XIV  to Bob Hope. Yet for Rabbit, there is a rare note of indecision. &#;When I made my stainless-steel rabbit, I really couldn&#;t decide whether to make an inflatable rabbit or an inflatable pig,&#; Koons explained to Norman Rosenthal.

Koons chose the rabbit, which would provide a springboard to international recognition. He would go on to reach new levels with his subsequent series, &#;Banality&#; &#; in which the jilted pig made its own resurgent appearance &#; and &#;Made in Heaven&#;.

In Rabbit, Koons appears to have fused the DNA of his first &#;official&#; series of works, the &#;Inflatables&#; of &#; a group of inflatable toys, which were shown on plinths made of right-angled mirrors, creating a single sculpture. Here, though, the ephemeral nature of the inflatable has been transcended: transformed into stainless steel by artisans working to Koons&#;s famously exacting specifications. Rabbit  is nigh on indestructible. This is not an intimation of mortality: it is a refutation of it.

Crucially, as well as being strong and useful, steel also has the gleam and glimmer of luxury. &#;I think the Bunny works because it performs exactly the way I intended it to,&#; Koons said of Rabbit. &#;It is very seductive shiny material and the viewer looks at this and feels for the moment economically secure. It&#;s most like the gold- and silver-leafing in church during the baroque and the rococo. The bunny is working the same way. And it has a lunar aspect, because it reflects. It is not interested in you, even though at the same moment it is.&#;

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