Little Dancer Seeks Big Price

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jan 9th 2009 at 9:02AM

British millionaire Sir John Madejski is sending his Tiny Dancer to the auction block at Sotheby's Impressionist art auction on February 3. The bronze sculpture from Degas, Petite danseuse de quatorze ans, is one of Degas's most famous and popular works. The bronze cast is one of only a few remaining in private hands. It is estimated at £9 – 12 million. Sir John Madejski is one of Britain's leading arts philanthropists and the sculpture was on display at the Royal Academy in London since 2004 when he bought this statue for £5 million at Sotheby's in London. Another version sold in 1999 for $12.4 million which is highest price paid for a Degas sculpture.

[via Wealth Bulletin]

Tags: bronze, degas, impressionist, sculpture, sothebys

Filed under: Auctions, Art

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Gary Arseneau Jan 9th 2009 9:23AM

All so-called Degas sculptures in bronze are posthumous -counterfeits-.

This fact becomes obvious when one realizes that Edgar Degas was some three or more years dead (d. 1917) when those 2nd to 3rd-generation-removed counterfeits were posthumously reproduced in bronze with counterfeit -Degas- signatures applied between 1920 to 1936 or later.

The dead don't sculpt, much less sign anything.

On the National Gallery of Art’s www.nga.gov/education/degas-11.htm website, it states: “By comparing the sculpture to stylistic changes in Degas' paintings and pastels, we are developing a chronology for the sculpture, which Degas did not date or sign.”

The Association of Art Museum Directors endorses the College Art Association's ethical guidelines on sculptural reproductions. In part, those ethical guidelines state: "any transfer into new material unless condone by the artist, is to be considered inauthentic or counterfeit and should not be acquired or exhibited as works of art."