A Hepworth That Sat for Lee Miller's Camera Is Coming to Christie's at Up to $10.5 Million

Christie's will offer Barbara Hepworth's Sculpture with Colour (Eos), and the house has set the top of its estimate at $10.5 million. The work carries more than its own form into the room. It appears in a Vogue portrait taken by Lee Miller, which means a collector here is bidding on an object that was already looked at closely, and recorded, by one of the sharpest eyes of its time. That kind of photographic record is the sort of thing American buyers of modern sculpture pay attention to, because it fixes a piece in a moment and gives it a face beyond the catalogue entry. The figure Christie's has attached to it is public and it is substantial, and it says plainly what the house believes a Hepworth with this history can bring. Where the hammer finally lands is for the sale to decide.

With reporting from ARTnews.