A long-lost sculpture by French artist Camille Claudel was sold at an art auction for ?3.1 million ($3.2 million) on Sunday,the second highest sum ever paid for a Claudel work, according to the Philocale auction house.
The work, called "The Mature Age", was originally estimated at between ?1.5 and ?2 million and was sold after a 20-minute bidding war.
The sculpture had not been seen in public since an exhibition at the Galerie d'Eugène Blot in 1907 and 1908. It was recently discovered by chance during an estate inventory, hidden under a cloth in along-abandoned Paris flat.
Created towards the end of the 19th century, the bronze work was inspired by Claudel's painful break-up with French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Born in 1864, Claudel was over 20 years younger than Rodin and his lover, muse and student.
"The Mature Age" explores the cycle of life by depicting the three stages of age: youth, maturity and old age. The work comprises three naked figures: an elderly woman dragging a man along, while a kneeling young woman pleads with him. This piece is one of only three known versions, with the others housed in the Orsay and Rodin museums in Paris and the Camille Claudel Museum in Nogent-sur-Seine. —dpa
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