Giacometti sculpture makes world record £65m

It took just eight minutes for bidders to reach the hammer price after L’Homme Qui Marche I opened at 12m at Sotheby’s in London.

The winning bid – the highest for any work of art ever sold at auction – was made over the phone by an anonymous buyer.

The sculpture is considered to be one of the most important by the 20th century Swiss artist.

It had been estimated to sell for between 12 m and 18m.

But furious bidding saw more than 10 rivals bump the price up to ever-higher levels, eventually topping 65m.

In so doing it beat the $104,168,000 (58,520,830) price paid for the previous auction record holder – Pablo Picasso’s Garcon a la Pipe which was sold in New York in 2004.

In a bumper night for Sotheby’s, one of the other highlights of the Impressionist and Modern Art sale also exceeded expectations.

Gustav Klimt’s Kirche in Cassone went for 26,921,250, far above the 12m to 18m estimate, and a record price for a Klimt landscape.

The sale of L’Homme Qui Marche I marked the first time that a Giacometti of its size had gone under the hammer in more than 20 years.

It was cast in 1961 at the height of the artist’s mature period.