One of Marcel Duchamp’s reproductions of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, on to which he pencilled a beard and moustache, has sold for 632,500 euros ($7,50,000) at Sotheby’s in Paris.
It was part of the sale of a collection of surrealist works owned by American Arthur Brandt, with 110 pieces fetching 3.9 million euros, including commission.
However, some stand-out pieces, including a work by Francis Picabia, which was estimated at 7,00,000 euros, did not find a buyer.
Duchamp’s version of the Mona Lisa was one of nine works in the sale by the French artist, who is seen as the father of conceptual art. The Mona Lisa works are entitled L.H.O.O.Q, which in French sounds like the phrase “elle a chaud au cul”, roughly translated as “she’s horny”. It had a pre-sale estimate of 4,00,000 to 6,00,000 euros.
The version that sold late on Saturday was created in 1964 after the original 1919 so-called “ready made” piece. The other Duchamp pieces on offer at the auction included Boite-en-valise or ‘Box in a Suitcase’, which beat its pre-sale estimate of 1,80,000 to 2,50,000 euros, selling for 3,19,500 euros.
Portable museum
The work is a portable museum featuring 68 of the artist’s most famous works, reproduced or miniaturised. Seven distinct versions were made in limited edition between 1941 and 1966.
A painting by Swiss artist Kurt Seligmann called Buste d’homme, estimated at 60,000 to 80,000 euros, was sold for 1,81,250 euros.