Calder $500 'Big Bird' Flops; Spunky Monk Priced at $25 Million Bloomberg
April 16 (Bloomberg) -- In 1964, a Midwestern executive paid $35,000 for a sculpture by Alexander Calder (1898-1976), called “Spunk of the Monk.”
“He owned an insurance company, had a private jet,” said Sandy Rower, the artist’s grandson and head of the Calder Foundation . “He was a fancy guy and he commissioned Calder to make a sculpture for him.”
The painted-steel work consists of three massive interconnected arcs on seven legs and stood for years in the courtyard of American Republic Insurance Co. in Des Moines, Iowa.
Gagosian gallery included the work in its 1993 show of Calder’s monumental sculpture in New York and it was sold for an undisclosed price at that time. “Spunk of the Monk” came back on the market last October at Gagosian’s gallery in Rome. It was later shipped to New York for a Calder exhibition at Gagosian’s Chelsea outpost.
The piece seems to have aged nicely over the years. While the gallery won’t reveal its price, the foundation is not so shy.
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