NEW YORK, NY.- Today’s cross-category La Ménagerie auction totaled $10,915,250 selling 84% by lot and 93% by value. The top lot of the curated sale, which was offered by Christie’s Design and Impressionist and Modern Art departments as part of its marquee 20th Century Week, was a fully functional one-of-a-kind Unique 'Hippopotame I' Bathtub, 1969 by François-Xavier Lalanne, which sold for $4,335,000 against a pre-sale high estimate of $1,500,000.

The sale included works of sculpture and design based on artists’ interpretations of animals and wildlife, which successfully attracted new clients to Christie’s and the Design category. Additional outstanding results were achieved for Rembrandt Bugatti’s Deux éléphants, l'un derrière l'autre, which realized $1,575,000 and achieved a top 10 auction record for the artist. Other top ten auction records achieved for artists included François Pompon’s Ours blanc, which sold for $350,000, and Judy Kensley Mckie’s Grizzly Bear Bench, which sold for $187,500. Achieving a world auction record for the artist was David Wiseman’s Owl on Branch, which sold for $47,500.

Daphne Riou, Head of Department, Design, remarked, “We are thrilled with the success of this second collaboration between the Design and Impressionist & Modern Art departments. These outstanding results show how a curated sale and fresh approach across categories engages new clients and collectors who collect more and more without boundaries. In particular, the fantastic price achieved by François-Xavier Lalanne’s unique and early ‘Hippopotame Bathtub’ selling for $4.3M against an estimate of $1-1.5M clearly demonstrates the appetite of the market for masterworks.”