A bronze chandelier that hung for decades in a Hampstead music room has sold for nearly £3 million at Christie’s.
Alberto Giacometti's unique bronze piece was commissioned by art patron Peter Watson and originally hung in the 1940s in the Bloomsbury offices of cultural magazine Horizon he founded.
The chandelier was then discovered by chance in Elizabeth Denton’s Marylebone antique shop in the 1960s by the artist John Craxton who was supported by Watson earlier in his career.
He bought it for £250 and hung it in the music room of his parents’ home in Kidderpore Avenue, Hampstead, before it went into storage after his death.
Today the arts and crafts house is occupied by his niece Jane, who rents it out for music rehearsals, and film shoots including Ricky Gervais' Afterlife, and The Theory of Everything.
Michelle McMullan, co-head of the Christie's sale said: "It is incredibly rare for chandeliers by the artist to come up at auction and we know there are only seven such objects recorded on Giacometti’s database, marking this as a once in a generation opportunity to acquire the work.”