Forgotten garden sculpture fetches $118,000 USD at auction

A bronze sculpture used as a simple garden decoration for the past 40 years in Cleveland, Ohio, has sold at auction for $118,000 USD.

CLEVELAND — It's a story right out of the Antique Roadshow. A simple four-foot-sculpture of a woman, carrying a water urn balanced on her head, has turned out to be a valuable work of art. The bronze sculpture sat in the garden of a Cleveland, Ohio, man for the past 40 years. It was there when he bought his west side Cleveland home and he simply left it in the garden. He had no idea of its history. At one point, he almost sold the work to an interested antique dealer for $3000 USD. But the man, an artist himself, must have had a feel for the quality of the piece as he refused to sell. Instead, he kept the sculpture in his garden where it remained, ageing gracefully, turning green. It turns out that the work is anything but a simple garden decoration. This is not a piece of Home Depot-like art but a genuine bronze sculpture created and cast in Paris in 1931 by Egyptian sculptor Mahmoud Mokhtar. Referred to as the father of modern Egyptian art, there is an entire Cairo museum devoted to Mokhtar's work. The Cleveland Auction Co. has now sold the sculpture at auction for $118,000 USD — $100,000 for the work, plus an $18,000 USD auctioneer's commission. Both the buyer and the seller have asked to remain anonymous. According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Kelly Grimm of the auction house was thrilled with the sale — the most ever paid at auction for a Mokhtar bronze.