dancer

Little Dancer's Big Price

Filed under: Art

A bronze sculpture of a young dancer proved that the art market isn't quite dead yet. British millionaire Sir John Madejski put his Degas dancer up for sale at Sotheby's Impressionist art auction on February 3. The bronze sculpture, Petite danseuse de quatorze ans, is one of only a few remaining in private hands and was estimated at £9 – 12 million. Instead it brought in £13.3 million pounds ($19.2 million) over £8 million more than he paid for it back in 2004.The three-foot-high sculpture of a dancer was one of an edition of 28 bronze casts made in 1922 after the artist's death in 1917. The buyer was an anonymous Asian collector. The sculpture was the top lot in Sotheby's London sale of Impressionist and modern art where 76 percent of the 29 lots found buyers. The sale brought in £32.6 million versus a low estimate of £40.6 million. Compare that with last year, where the February Impressionist and modern art sale at Sotheby's brought in £117 million.

[Thanks, Lana]

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Tags: auction, bronze, dancer, degas

Ballroom Dancing Robot

by Nicole Weston (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Gadgets

Ballroom dancing is gaining popularity with amazing speed thanks to shows like Dancing with the Stars, so a competition that once only interested a small portion of the public is now prime-time viewing. But doing something is a lot more fun than watching others do it, so dance lessons and competitions are becoming more popular, as well. One of the biggest obstacles that a dancer faces is finding the right partner and, at least for men, that search just got a little easier thanks to Ballroom Dancing Robots. The robots are battery powered and can sense and anticipate their partners' movements. They reportedly move with a fair amount of agility, too. Each one will sell for about $300,000, and you can download a video clip of them here.