UK millionaire to auction Tiny Dancer - £12m estimate
A bronze version of impressionist artist Edgar Degas' most famous sculpture is being sold by one of the UK's wealthiest men, expected to reach a high estimate of £12m ($17.6m) next month.
The three foot high sculpture of “Petite danseuse de quatorze ans” owned by John Madejski, one of the UK's richest businessmen, is expected to fetch up to £12m on Feb 3 at Sotheby’s auction of Impressionist and modern art, with a minimum estimate of £9m.
Madejski, who last week won a knighthood, is chairman of Reading Football Club and ranks as the 214th wealthiest man in the UK according to the 2008 Sunday Times Rich List. He is former publisher of AutoTrader magazine, and his fortune, based on publishing and property interests, was then estimated at £400m.
He bought this particular version of the statue, one of 10 left in private hands, for £5m at Sotheby’s in London in February 2004, the auction house said.
This was the last time a “Petite danseuse” appeared at auction, said Sotheby’s. Since then it has been on display at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, where Madejski sponsored a suite of galleries bearing his name.
The highest auction price achieved for a Degas sculpture is the $12.4m paid for another bronze version of the “Petite danseuse” at Sotheby’s in New York in November 1999.
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