The highest selling price worldwide for a sculpture by the pioneering Greek artist Takis (Panagiotis Vasilakis, 1925–2019) was achieved by VERGOS Auctions, the largest Greek auction house.
The sale occurred during the recent auction of Modern Greek Painting and Sculpture, with Historical, Philhellenic and Folklore Items, held on June 17 at the Athinais Cultural Center.
The sculpture was initially appraised at €100,000 – 150,000, but after keen interest was expressed by buyers both from Greece and abroad, it sold for €190,300 to a Greek collector.
READ MORE: Passion for Art and will to adapt: This is how Vergos Auction House is navigating through the pandemic.
It belongs to the famous ‘Signals’ series by the internationally recognised sculptor, and was exhibited in 2008 at the Xippas Gallery in Paris.
Takis’ historically highest selling price for the global art market marks another achievement for VERGOS Auctions, following two other recent successes for Greek artists:
(1) at the Painting & Sculpture auction held in January, the highest selling price for the Greek art market and among the 5 highest worldwide (€ 378.120) was achieved by the auction house for the painting “The apotheosis of beauty” (1940) by Konstantinos Parthenis (1878 – 1967),
(2) the highest price worldwide (€28,274) for the “White Eikonostasio” (2003) by the contemporary artist Stephen Antonakos (1926 – 2013). In an earlier auction, the highest selling price in Greece and 4th worldwide was also achieved, for the work (2 “Untitled” 001) by Giannis Kounellis (1936 – 2017) which sold for €259,600.
At the auction of June 17, in the category of Historical and Philhellenic Objects, strong interest was also shown for the Portrait of Theodoros Kolokotronis (1843) by the French painter Pierre Bonirote (1811 – 1891) which ended up selling for € 34,250 (estimated price after appraisal € 8,000 – 12,000).
For more information on the results of the auction, interested parties may visit the website www.vergosauctions.com.
READ MORE: Works of Greek artist Constantinos Parthenis among the 5 highest priced in the world.
