A London auction of soccer-themed works raised more than US$4 million for children’s charities on Thursday, including a portrait of Barcelona star Lionel Messi by Damien Hirst that alone fetched US$556,000.
The Sotheby’s London auction featured 18 donated works from artists including Japan’s Takashi Murakami, US sculptor Richard Serra, Egyptian artist Wael Shawky and Saudi Arabia’s Manal al-Dowayan.
It raised just over US$4 million for “1 in 11,” a campaign to increase education opportunities for vulnerable children in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Nepal.
Photo: AFP
The colorful painting of the Argentine player, Beautiful Messi Spin Painting For One in Eleven, shows the forward in his Barcelona jersey, flanked by two soccer balls.
A circular Murakami work showing Messi about to kick a ball on a floral background, Lionel Messi and a Universe of Flowers, sold for US$483,000.
A football designed by Murakami and signed by Messi sold for US$69,000, while the most expensive item sold was a 1999 work by US artist Jeff Koons titled Donkey (Yellow) that went for US$850,000.
“Never has the phrase ‘the beautiful game’ been more apt than this evening, when the worlds of football and art collided,” Sotheby’s auctioneer and Europe deputy chairman Oliver Barker said.
Gerard Bocquenet, head of private fundraising and partnerships at UNICEF, which backs the “1 in 11” project, said he was thrilled by the amount raised.
“Every child, wherever she or he lives, has the right to learn, to play and to grow, and tonight art and football have come together in a unique way to help ensure more children enjoy that right,” he said.
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