The Teddy Bear Lamp That Set Urs Fischer's Auction Record

Urs Fischer's Untitled (Lamp/Bear) (2005-06) sold for $6.8m at Christie's in New York on May 11, 2011. Cast bronze, epoxy primer, urethane paint, acrylic polyurethane topcoat, acrylic glass, gas discharge lamp, and stainless-steel framework.

This work is number one from an edition of two plus one artist's proof. It had been traded twice before.

Fischer's giant lamp is a functioning light, illuminating the giant teddy bear, who has just one eye. In typical Fischer fashion, he used unconventional materials to make a memorable, and in this case monumental, work.

The Swiss artist first created a replica of his stuffed teddy bear from childhood, sewing its various parts together by hand. He then enlisted the help of experts at the University of Applied Sciences St. Gallen to use laser technology to create an exact version of the toy and the lamp, digitally scaling them up to stand 7 metres tall.

A baby-blue version of the giant bear-lamp was owned by the collector Steve Cohen and his wife Alex, who lent their sculpture to Brown University for five years from 2016.

The sale beat the artist’s previous auction record by $5.72m, a 500% rise. His previous record was set by Untitled (candle) (2001), which sold for $1.08m at Sotheby's on November 9, 2010.

A Brief History of Urs Fischer at Auction