Ai Weiwei work sets sales record in London
February 13, 2015
The set of 12 gold-plated sculptures titled "Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads" (2010) by Ai Weiwei fetched a winning bid of more than 2.8 million pounds ($4.3 million, 3.8 million euros) at the Phillips auction house in London. It's the highest price paid to date for work by the 57-year-old artist, more than tripling the amount of his last record sale in 2014 for his "Map of China" sculpture.
The 12 sculptures in Ai's set are inspired by similar zodiac figures located on a fountain at the Old Summer Palace in Beijing, which was destroyed by a British and French strike in 1860. Five of the original figurines were destroyed at the time, so the artist re-imagined them in "Circle of Animals."
The auctioned heads on pedestal are the first complete set to arrive at auction, but the artist has completed an additional seven gilded sets of the same figures. He also created much larger versions cast in bronze, rather than in gold.
Ai Weiwei remains in China, where the government is preventing him from leaving the country. That hasn't stopped him from working abroad. Coinciding with this year's Berlinale, he has been using #link:18248221:Skype to manage the direction of a film starring his son in Berlin. Other versions of the Chinese zodiac figurines have also been included in traveling exhibitions since 2010.
gsw/jgt (AFP, AP)