Lily Safra Paid $103.4 Million for Giacometti, Dealers Say
By Scott Reyburn

Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- London-based billionaire Lily Safra is the buyer of the Alberto Giacometti sculpture that fetched a record 65 million pounds (then $103.4 million) at an auction in London on Feb. 3, said two dealers with knowledge of the matter who declined to be named.

Safra, born in Brazil, is the widow of the Lebanese banker Edmond J. Safra, who died in a fire in his Monaco apartment in 1999. She has a net worth of $1 billion, according to Forbes’s 2009 listing of the world’s wealthiest individuals, and has a home in London’s Belgravia district.

Giacometti’s 1961 bronze, “Walking Man I,” was offered with an estimate of 12 million pounds to 18 million pounds at Sotheby’s London sale of Impressionist and modern art. After 8 minutes of competition among at least four telephone bidders and two individuals in the room, the price with auction-house fees reached 65 million pounds.



“It was a freak result,” said Philip Hoffman, chief executive of the London-based Fine Art Fund. “But there are wealthy people out there desperate to buy rare pieces and when something important comes up with a sensible estimate the bidding goes crazy.”

Sotheby’s version of the life-size statue -- one of a numbered edition of six, plus four artist’s proofs -- was the first example cast in the Swiss artist’s lifetime offered at auction, the company said. It had been part of the collection of Germany-based Dresdner Bank AG, which was bought by Commerzbank AG in January 2009.



Rivaling Picasso

“The next one will make 20 million pounds,” said Hoffman. “It’s not an investment piece. I can’t see that being worth 200 million in 10 years’ time.”

Sotheby’s said the price was a record for the artist and for any artwork sold at auction. The HSBC midmarket exchange rate gave a figure of $104.3 million, just exceeding the $104.2 million for Pablo Picasso’s 1905 painting, “Garcon a la Pipe,” sold at Sotheby’s, New York, in May 2004.

The previous auction record for Giacometti was the $27.5 million paid for the earlier bronze, “Grande Femme Debout II,” at Christie’s International, New York, in May 2008.



The winning telephone bid for “Walking Man I” was taken by the Sotheby’s London-based senior specialist in Impressionist art, Philip Hook, who would not divulge the nationality of the buyer he represented. Hook wasn’t immediately available for an update.

Sotheby’s, in the interest of confidentiality, never reveals the identities of its buyers, unless they give permission.



Bidding War

The Hong Kong-based real-estate developer Joseph Lau was among the unsuccessful telephone bidders, Rachel Kong, the businessman’s personal assistant, said in an e-mail on Feb. 23. “Our last bid was indeed much higher than the high estimate of Sotheby’s, though in vain eventually,” Kong said.

Two London-based dealers, speaking independently and anonymously to Bloomberg News, have identified the buyer as Safra.

“The sculpture has been delivered to her place in Belgravia,” said the first of these dealers, who has contacts with the shippers who transported the piece.

The second dealer said that Safra had become interested in buying the Giacometti after her negotiations for the private purchase of another cast of “Walking Man I” from a dealer had fallen through prior to the auction. This other version had been priced at about $45 million to $50 million, said the dealer.



“Mrs. Safra’s longstanding policy is to not respond to press inquiries of any type,” said Seth Goldschlager, a Paris- based public-relations consultant who is Safra’s spokesman, in an e-mail yesterday.

In a subsequent e-mail, Goldschlager would neither confirm nor deny that Safra was the buyer when told that Bloomberg News would publish her name as the purchaser.



Philanthropy

Safra is the chairwoman of the Edmond J. Safra Foundation, a philanthropic organization that supports projects devoted to education, science and medicine, religion and humanitarian issues in more than 50 countries, according to the foundation’s Web site.



She has a mansion, Villa Leopolda, at Villefranche-sur-Mer, near Monte Carlo. The property was valued at $500 million in 2008, making it the world’s most expensive house, according to the Guinness Book of Records. Goldschlager confirmed that Safra still owns Villa Leopolda.



Safra also owns property in Geneva, Monaco and New York, said Forbes. In December 2009, she sold a 12th-floor apartment at 820 Fifth Ave. and 63rd Street to Kenneth Griffin, founder of Citadel Investment Group LLC, for $40 million, according to city property records.

(Scott Reyburn writes about the art market for Bloomberg News. Opinions expressed are his own.)



To contact the writer on the story: Scott Reyburn in London at sreyburn@hotmail.com.
Last Updated: February 26, 2010 19:01 EST