Giacometti Purchaser Identified

Scott Reyburn of Bloomberg is reporting the purchaser of the Giacomettin Walking Man Bronze which recently sold at Sotheby's London for $103.4 million was purchased by Lily Safra. Safra is the window of Lebanese Banker Edward Safra who died in an apartment fire in Monaco in 1999. Lily Safra is set to be worth $1 billion. Hong Kong-based real-estate developer Joseph Lau was also identified as one of the under bidders.

Phillip Hoffman of the London Based Fine Art Fund stated the purchase price was a freak event, brought about by a low estimate and wealthy people bidding crazily for a rare piece.

Reyburn reports

Two London-based dealers, speaking independently and anonymously to Bloomberg News, have identified the buyer as Safra.

“The sculpture has been delivered to her place in Belgravia,” said the first of these dealers, who has contacts with the shippers who transported the piece.

The second dealer said that Safra had become interested in buying the Giacometti after her negotiations for the private purchase of another cast of “Walking Man I” from a dealer had fallen through prior to the auction. This other version had been priced at about $45 million to $50 million, said the dealer.

“Mrs. Safra’s longstanding policy is to not respond to press inquiries of any type,” said Seth Goldschlager, a Paris- based public-relations consultant who is Safra’s spokesman, in an e-mail yesterday.

In a subsequent e-mail, Goldschlager would neither confirm nor deny that Safra was the buyer when told that Bloomberg News would publish her name as the purchaser.

Philanthropy

Safra is the chairwoman of the Edmond J. Safra Foundation, a philanthropic organization that supports projects devoted to education, science and medicine, religion and humanitarian issues in more than 50 countries, according to the foundation’s Web site.

She has a mansion, Villa Leopolda, at Villefranche-sur-Mer, near Monte Carlo. The property was valued at $500 million in 2008, making it the world’s most expensive house, according to the Guinness Book of Records. Goldschlager confirmed that Safra still owns Villa Leopolda.

Safra also owns property in Geneva, Monaco and New York, said Forbes.

 To read the full Bloomberg article, click HERE.