A uncommon bar within the form of a hippopotamus by François-Xavier Lalanne offered for $31.4m (with charges) at a Sotheby’s design public sale in New York on Wednesday (10 December), breaking the artist’s secondary-market file and changing into probably the most worthwhile design object ever offered at public sale.
Like lots of the whimsical-yet-practical designs created by Lalanne (and in collaboration together with his spouse and design accomplice Claude Lalanne), the hippo is a totally functioning bar. The animal’s facet opens as much as reveal a revolving bottle rack, storage for glasses, an ice bucket and a tray for serving meals.
The bar was estimated to promote for between $7m and $10m, however after a 26-minute contest between 7 bidders, the worth climbed to $31.4m (together with charges). Not solely did Hippopotame Bar smash its estimate, it additionally exceeded Lalanne’s earlier public sale file by greater than $10m. That work, Rhinocrétaire I (1964), held a desk, secure, bar and wine storage in a brass rhinoceros. It offered for €18.3m (with charges) at Christie’s Paris in 2023.
François-Xavier Lalanne, Hippopotame Bar, pièce distinctive, 1976 Courtesy Sotheby’s
Hippopotame Bar, pièce distinctive (1976) was commissioned by the late oil heiress Anne Schlumberger, one of many Lalannes’ earliest patrons. Schlumberger is alleged to have served visitors chips and salsa from the hippo bar. Whereas the hippopotamus form was a recurring one in Lalanne’s profession—he additionally made bathtubs and even a bidet after the animal—the work offered on Wednesday is his solely instance of a bar constituted of copper.
Schlumberger was an influential artwork collector and the elder sister of Dominique de Menil, the matriarch of the foremost gathering household in Houston who commissioned the Rothko Chapel and based the Menil Assortment museum. Different objects from her assortment that offered at Sotheby’s this 12 months embrace a necklace designed by Salvador Dalí.
