A statue of Hitler on his knees by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan has sold at Christie’s for $17.2 million (£12 million).
The spring auctions in New York expected to make between $10 million and $15 million for the wax sculpture Titled Him.
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The sale set a record for the Italian artist whos previous record was $7.9 million for a statue of himself peeping through a hole in the floor.
The sculpture caused controversy when it was installed in a former Warsaw Ghetto, a place where thousands of Jews died under Nazi rule.
Cattelan completed Him in 2001. The work appearing like a small child from behind, yet with Hitler’s face offering a contrast.
The 55-year-old artists Describing the piece : “Hitler is pure fear; it’s an image of terrible pain. It even hurts to pronounce his name. And yet that name has conquered my memory, it lives in my head, even if it remains taboo. Hitler is everywhere, haunting the spectre of history; and yet he is unmentionable, irreproducible, wrapped in a blanket of silence.”
Cattelan continued: “I’m not trying to offend anyone, ”I don’t want to raise a new conflict or create some publicity; I would just like that image to become a territory for negotiation or a test for our psychoses.”
