Most expensive sculpture ever sold

What to remember

A thin standing figure, right arm out, finger pointing ahead: that is the shape Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti cast in bronze in 1947 as L'Homme au doigt, also known as Pointing Man. On 11 May 2015, at Christie's in New York, one of its casts sold for a sum that made it the most expensive sculpture ever sold at auction.

The hammer came down at $126 million; with fees the total reached $141,300,000. The seller was Sheldon Solow, the buyer a private collection, and the lot was part of a sale titled "Looking Forward to the Past". Adjusted for inflation, the price comes to $191.9 million.

The bronze is far from a one-off. Giacometti made six casts of the work plus one artist's proof. Several can be seen in museums, among them New York's Museum of Modern Art, the Tate in London, the Des Moines Art Center and Glenstone; the others sit in foundation collections or private hands. So the price was set by one cast among several, not by a single original.