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Madejski's Degas sculpture expected to make £12m
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent6 Jan 2009
BUSINESSMAN Sir John Madejski is selling an important sculpture by French impressionist Edgar Degas.
The Reading football club owner is to auction La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans (the Little Dancer aged 14), one of the few casts of the groundbreaking work left in private hands.
He bought it four years ago for £5 million and lent it to the Royal Academy where it has been a centrepiece of galleries which he paid to refurbish. It is now expected to make up to £12 million when it is sold at Sotheby's in London on 3 February.
Sir John said: "I was delighted to share this wonderful sculpture with visitors to the Royal Academy where it has been since 2004. My collection is constantly evolving and developing into new areas."
It is one of about two dozen casts of the work which, in wax form, was the only sculpture by Degas ever exhibited in his lifetime.
His works were not cast in bronze until after his death as he did not have the money for the production costs.
Tate, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York are among the galleries which own copies of the work which was cast in 1922.
Helena Newman, Sotheby's vice-chairman of impressionist and modern art, said the realistic depiction of a 14-year-old dancer was regarded as revolutionary in Degas's lifetime.
Despite the credit crunch, the auctioneers expect it to attract buyers. "They don't come up very often," she said. "For collectors who are looking to acquire the great masterpieces of impressionist and modern art, this is one of them. It's a great piece."
As recently as November, a pastel by Degas set a world record price of $36 million. Sculpture in general has risen enormously in value in recent years.
Sir John has proved a generous supporter of the arts. The funding of the rooms in his name at the Royal Academy and the loan of the work was part of this philanthropy.
Petite Danseuse was created in wax in around 1879 to 1881 and exhibited in Paris in 1991. The model was Marie van Goethem, the daughter of a Belgian tailor and laundress who was a ballet student in Paris.
