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Bronze ostrich sold at auction for £1.8 million
Sam Russell, PA
22 April 2021, 4:16 pm
A sculpture of an ostrich by Renaissance artist Giambologna has sold at auction for more than £1.8 million – 15 times its pre-sale estimate.
The bronze bird was sold to a UK-based private buyer in the room at the Cheffins Fine Sale in Cambridge on Thursday.
It went for £1,824,540, dwarfing the pre-sale estimate of £80,000 to £120,000 and setting a new house record for the auctioneers.
Giambologna (1529-1608) was a Flemish sculptor who worked in Italy.
The ostrich sculpture was at one point owned by Horace Walpole, son of former British prime minister Sir Robert Walpole, and held in his collection at Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham, south-west London.