Degas Little Dancer to be Auctioned at Sotheby's London

Scott Reyburn of Bloomberg is reporting that a Degas Little Dance bronze statue will be sold at Sotheby's, London in February at the Impressionist and Modern sale. The pre sale estimate is $13.2 million to $17.6 million.

Reyburn reports The 3-foot-high “Little Dancer” is one of an edition of 28 bronze casts made in 1922 after the artist’s death in 1917. The original wax and fabric statue, now in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon and on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. was first shown by Degas in Paris at the sixth Impressionist exhibition of 1881. “This was the only sculpture Degas exhibited in his own lifetime, and so it has a unique place in the artist’s work,” said Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern art specialist Helena Newman in a phone interview. “It was regarded as incredibly modern and lifelike at the time.

I am not an expert on Bronze, an edition of 1 of 28 is nice, but that is an awful lot of money for a confirmed posthumously cast bronze. Any experts on bronzes and Degas, please feel free to comment. To read the article, click HERE.