Marble Rodin sculpture fetches record price at NY auction

Baku. 10 May. REPORT.AZ/ A rare marble sculpture by Auguste Rodin sold for a record $20.4 million at Sotheby's sale of impressionist and modern art.

Report informs citing the auction house, Rodin's "Eternal Springtime" was created out of a single block of marble in 1901-1903. It features a floral motif base of two lovers in a passionate embrace and is believed to be the fifth in a series of 10 known carvings of the subject that Rodin created in marble.

The previous auction record for any Rodin sculpture was "Iris, Messenger of the Gods," a bronze work owned by Sylvester Stallone that sold for $16.6 million in February.

Other highlights among the 62 works offered at the Monday evening sale included Paul Signac's "The Port Houses, Saint-Trope." It sold for $10.7 million, well within its presale estimate of $8 to $12 million.

An important example of the pointillist style, the bright painting depicts the French coastal town of Saint-Tropez in 1882. It was the first time the neo-impressionist artist had visited the town, a place he returned to often.

The Saint-Tropez painting has been in the same family for nearly 60 years, purchased in 1958 by the parents of John Langeloth Loeb Jr., the former U.S. ambassador to Denmark.

The auction record for a Signac work is $14 million, achieved in 2007.