Former Wall Street mogul, noted art collector and alleged inside trader Steven Cohen is the proud owner of the most expensive sculpture ever sold, as he has been identified as the mystery buyer who paid $141 million at auction recently for Giacometti’s Bronze ‘Pointing Man’.
Of note, Cohen’s hedge fund SAC pled guilty to insider-trading charges, paid $1.8 billion in fines and and agreed to stop managing money for outside clients back in 2013. Cohen is also facing a civil suit by the SEC, which alleges he failed to supervise employees who were found guilty of insider trading.
The New York Post first identified Cohen as the mystery buyer of the Giacometti bronze sculpture on Monday.
Stevie Cohen is a well-known modern art collector
Cohen is the founder of Point72 Asset Management (formerly SAC Capital), and has over recent years become one of the world’s top collectors of modern and contemporary artists. He already owns Giacometti’s “Chariot” sculpture that he bought at an auction at Sotheby’s last year for $101 million, as well as Pablo Picasso’s portrait of his sleeping mistress, “The Dream,” which he purchased from casino billionaire Steve Wynn a couple of years ago.
Art experts point out that banned-from-the-industry Cohen also owns several well-known pieces by Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock. Other collectors have also surmised that Cohen might have been the buyer of a couple of other Giacometti pieces that have sold over the last few years.
More on Giacometti’s ‘Pointing Man’
The iconic 6-foot-tall ‘Pointing Man” sculpture depicts a reedy man with his right arm outstretched, and is considered a classic example of Giacometti’s style of portraying the existential Everyman.
Of interest, Giacometti produced six casts of the work in 1947. Four of the sculptures are currently displayed in museums, and another is a part of a private foundation. The version sold at auction on May 11 was owned by an anonymous collector for more than four decades.
