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Guennol Lioness Sculpture sells for record amount .

A new world record for any sculpture at auction was set last week at Sotheby's in New York when a 3¼in, 5,000-year-old limestone carving of a lioness sold for $57.2 million US

By Colin Gleadell 11/12/2007 found at telegraph.co.uk 

The sculpture, known as the Guennol Lioness, is thought to have been made in what is now

Iran, and was sold by American collector Alastair Bradley Martin, the grandson of

steel magnate Henry Phipps. It got its name because Martin had named his Long Island

home Guennol to commemorate his honeymoon in Wales (guennol is the Welsh word for Martin).

The price exceeds the previous $28.6 million record for an antiquity, which was set earlier in the year by a Roman bronze depicting Artemis and a stag, and the previous $29.2 million record for a sculpture held by Picasso's bronze of the head of his lover, Dora Maar.

The successful bidder, who stood at the back of the saleroom wearing a grey check suit and reading glasses, was described by Sotheby's as English, and told reporters that he was an archaeologist. However, he was not thought to be bidding for himself.

In spite of the adverse publicity surrounding looted antiquities and the ongoing trial in Rome of the Getty Museum's antiquities curator Marion True, the antiquities market appears to be flourishing. The Sotheby's sale found buyers for all but four of the 136 lots and realised a record £32 million for an antiquities auction.