The Sculpture That Set Hans Arp's Auction Record
3 min read · 02 Apr 2025
Déméter. Image courtesy of Christie's
Hans Arp's Déméter (1961) sold for $5.83m at Christie's in New York on November 11, 2018. The white marble sculpture had been traded 3 times in the past.
Conceived in 1960, the unique marble, measuring 100cm high, was also cast in bronze in an edition of five. Arp's plaster model is in the Musée d’Art Moderne, Strasbourg.
The sculpture was among the masterworks collected by Herbert and Adele Klapper, who rose from the rag trade to riches by buildng up a sewing machine supply company in New York.
Hans Arp (also known as Jean Arp), was a Dada co-founder along with his first wife, the artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp, and both were leading members of the Surrealists. Each created radical and influential abstract works, his biometric, hers geometic. He was heartbroken when she died in an accident in 1943, and always insisted their work be shown together.
Known for biometric reliefs and sculptures, late in life Hans Arp traveled to Greece and also through the Middle East, experiences that inspired the work Déméter, named after the Ancient Greed goddess of harvests.
While Arp's artistic legacy is unquestionable, his market suffered due to the over production of posthumous casts of works, something the artist's foundations in Berlin and Locarno have worked to address. There is a third Arp foundation based at Hans and Sophie Taeuber's art-filled home at Clamart near Paris.
Torse Des Pyrénées. Image courtesy of Sotheby's
The sale beat Arp's previous auction record by $975,000, a 20% rise. His previous record was set by Torse Des Pyrénées (1962), which sold for $4.85m at Sotheby's on May 16, 2017.
A Brief History of Hans Arp
Sale Date | Title | Price | Record Increase | Venue | City |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2018-11-11 | Déméter | $5.83m | 20 % | Christie's | New York |
2017-05-16 | Torse Des Pyrénées | $4.85m | 19 % | Sotheby's | New York |
2017-03-01 | Torse | $4.09m | 6 % | Sotheby's | London |
2013-11-06 | Torse Tenant Par La Bride Une Tête De Cheval | $3.86m | 43 % | Sotheby's | New York |
2003-04-14 | Femme | $2.69m | 84 % | Calmels Cohen | Paris |
1989-06-12 | Composition | $1.46m | 200 % | Binoche & Godeau | Paris |
1988-11-20 | Trousse d'un Da | $488,700 | 2 % | Loudmer | Paris |
1988-11-15 | Demeter | $480,000 | 20 % | Christie's | New York |
1988-05-11 | Torse des Pyrenees | $400,000 | 18 % | Christie's | New York |
1986-11-19 | Torse vegetal | $340,000 | 10 % | Christie's | New York |
1985-11-13 | Déméter | $310,000 | 182 % | Sotheby's | New York |
1979-11-05 | La Femme Amphore | $110,000 | 140 % | Sotheby's | New York |
1978-12-06 | Plan sureleve dit tables-forets | $45,800 | 70 % | Sotheby's | London |
1976-12-02 | Homme a la moustache | $27,000 | - | Loudmer | Paris |
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