2000 year old “Artemis” fetches $25.5 million

Albright-Knox Art Gallery recently decided to auction off 207 items from its permanent collection.

The famous Artemis and Stag bronze statue, hand crafted by a Roman sculptor some 2000 years ago sold for a record $25.5m making it the most expensive sculpture ever sold at auction, along with the most expensive antiquity, and the 24 other items sold along with it Thursday bring the gallery’s total haul to about $64.2 million.

The sale took more than 10 minutes, with the bidding increasing in $100,000 increments and confined to only four people. There were, it seems, no contending phone bidders, so it’s safe to say that the atmosphere in the room was likely extremely intense.

The bidder was identified as European, watch this space to see if it ends up back on public view.