A rare bar in the shape of a hippopotamus by François-Xavier Lalanne sold for $31.4m (with fees) at a Sotheby’s design auction in New York on Wednesday (10 December), breaking the artist’s secondary-market record and becoming the most valuable design object ever sold at auction.
Like many of the whimsical-yet-practical designs created by Lalanne (and in collaboration with his wife and design partner Claude Lalanne), the hippo is a fully functioning bar. The animal’s side opens up to reveal a revolving bottle rack, storage for glasses, an ice bucket and a tray for serving food.
The bar was estimated to sell for between $7m and $10m, but after a 26-minute contest between 7 bidders, the price climbed to $31.4m (including fees). Not only did Hippopotame Bar smash its estimate, it also exceeded Lalanne’s previous auction record by more than $10m. That work, Rhinocrétaire I (1964), held a desk, safe, bar and wine storage in a brass rhinoceros. It sold for €18.3m (with fees) at Christie’s Paris in 2023.
François-Xavier Lalanne, Hippopotame Bar, pièce unique, 1976 Courtesy Sotheby's
Hippopotame Bar, pièce unique (1976) was commissioned by the late oil heiress Anne Schlumberger, one of the Lalannes' earliest patrons. Schlumberger is said to have served guests chips and salsa from the hippo bar. While the hippopotamus shape was a recurring one in Lalanne’s career—he also made bathtubs and even a bidet after the animal—the work sold on Wednesday is his only example of a bar made from copper.
Schlumberger was an influential art collector and the elder sister of Dominique de Menil, the matriarch of the major collecting family in Houston who commissioned the Rothko Chapel and founded the Menil Collection museum. Other objects from her collection that sold at Sotheby’s this year include a necklace designed by Salvador Dalí.
