In this Friday, April 29, 2016 photo, "Him" Maurizio Cattelan is on display during the press preview of "Bound to Fail" at Christie's auction house in New York. Christieâs starts off the auction week on Sunday, May 8, with a themed sale titled âBound to Fail,â that features the controversial sculpture of a praying Hitler by Cattelan estimated between $10 million and $15 million. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
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NEW YORK (AP) - The highly anticipated art auction season arrived Sunday with a specially curated sale that included a sculpture of a kneeling Hitler by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, which fetched a record price for the artist, and a ball suspended in a water tank by Jeff Koons.
Christie's "Bound to Fail" themed sale kicked off the weeklong New York auctions of modern, post-war and contemporary art at Christie's and Sotheby's.
"Him," Cattelan's controversial sculpture of Hitler, appears as a small child kneeling in prayer when approached from the rear. But from the front, the viewer comes face-to-face with the unmistakable likeness of Hitler. It sold for a record $17.2 million. The previous auction record for a work by Cattelan was $7.9 million.
The 2001 work, made with human hair, wax and polyester resin, is the artist's proof from an edition of three. It was included in the artist's retrospective at the Guggenheim in 2011.
"One Ball Total Equilibrium Tank" is a 1985 sculpture by Koons that depicts a basketball suspended inside a vitrine of distilled water. It garnered just under $15.3 million, beating its $12 million estimate.
Both works came up for auction for the first time.
The "Bound to Fail" auction features 39 works curated by Loic Gouzer, Christie's deputy chairman of post-war and contemporary art. The concept originated with a work by Bruce Nauman titled "Henry Moore Bound to Fail," a cast of Nauman's own hands bound behind his back. The sculpture sold for just under $7 million. The auction record for the artist is $9.9 million.
The themed auction "shines a spotlight on works that have purposefully pushed the envelope of what the art market would be willing to call 'successful' in the pursuit of creating something new and ground-breaking," said Gouzer.
In the case of Cattelan, the artist "defied the taboos of representation by disguising evil incarnate under a cloak of innocence," he added.
Other works in the sale include a silkscreen by Glenn Ligon of Malcolm X with rouged cheeks and pink lips, which fetched $1 million. Also selling were Marcel Duchamp's lithograph of a masculinized Mona Lisa with a moustache and goatee that brought in $1.2 million, Martin Kippenberger's "Feet First, 1990" depicting a cartoonish frog hanging from a cross that garnered $1.3 million, and Cindy Sherman's "Untitled (#175), 1987," a landscape of decay portrayed with cupcakes that sold for $413,000.
Gouzer has curated two other successful auctions at Christie's, including "Looking Forward to the Past" last May where Pablo Picasso's 1955 "Women of Algiers (Version O)" sold for $179 million, setting a world record for artwork at auction.
The weeklong spring auctions of 20th century art runs through Friday.
In this Friday, April 29, 2016 photo, a visitor walks past "Smooth Egg with Bow (Magenta/Violet)" by Jeff Koons on display during the press preview of "Bound to Fail" at Christie's auction house in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
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In this Friday, March 29, 2016 photo, Andre Derain's "Red Sails" is viewed during the spring auction preview at Sotheby's, in New York. On Monday, May 9, 2016, Sothebyâs offers Derainâs painting for an estimated $15 million to $20 million, one of the two Fauve works. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
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In this Friday, April 29, 2016 photo, a visitor walks past "Lobster," right, by Jeff Koons, "And If You," center, by Christopher Wool, and "Urinal" by Robert Gober on display during the press preview of "Bound to Fail" at Christie's auction house in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
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In this Friday, April 29, 2016 photo, a visitor takes a photo of "Him" by Maurizio Cattelan on display during the press preview of "Bound to Fail" at Christie's auction house in New York. Christieâs starts off the auction week on Sunday, May 8, with a themed sale titled âBound to Fail,â that features the controversial sculpture of a praying Hitler by Cattelan estimated between $10 million and $15 million. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
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In this Friday, April 29, 2016 photo, employees inspect "One Ball Total Equilibrium Tank" by Jeff Koons, on display during the press preview of "Bound to Fail" at Christie's auction house in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
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In this Friday, March 29, 2016 photo, Monet's "Low Tide at Petite-Dalles" is displayed during the spring auction preview at Sotheby's. A sculpture of a kneeling Hitler and two Fauve period paintings are also among the offerings at the impressionist, modern and contemporary art evening auctions at Sotheby's and Christie's in New York next week. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
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In this Friday, March 29, 2016 photo, Paul Signac's "The Port Houses, Saint-Tropez" is viewed during the spring auction preview at Sotheby's, in New York. A sculpture of a kneeling Hitler and two Fauve period paintings are among the offerings at the impressionist, modern and contemporary art evening auctions at Sotheby's and Christie's in New York next week. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
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In this Friday, March 29, 2016 photo, Maurice de Vlaminck's "Underbrush" is displayed during the spring auction preview at Sotheby's, in New York. A sculpture of a kneeling Hitler and two Fauve period paintings are among the offerings at the impressionist, modern and contemporary art evening auctions at Sotheby's and Christie's in New York next week. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
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In this Friday, March 29, 2016 photo, Andy Warhol's "Self-Portrait (Fright Wig)" is displayed during the spring auction preview at Sotheby's. A sculpture of a kneeling Hitler and two Fauve period paintings are also among the offerings at the impressionist, modern and contemporary art evening auctions at Sotheby's and Christie's in New York next week. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
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In this Friday, March 29, 2016 photo, Rodin's "Eternal Springtime" is viewed during the spring auction preview at Sotheby's, in New York. A sculpture of a kneeling Hitler and two Fauve period paintings are also among the offerings at the impressionist, modern and contemporary art evening auctions at Sotheby's and Christie's in New York next week. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
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In this Friday, March 29, 2016 photo, Cy Twombly's "Untitled" from the Blackboard series is displayed during the spring auction preview at Sotheby's, in New York. A sculpture of a kneeling Hitler and two Fauve period paintings are also among the offerings at the impressionist, modern and contemporary art evening auctions at Sotheby's and Christie's in New York next week. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
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In this Friday, March 29, 2016 photo, Francis Bacon's "Two Studies for a Self-Portrait" is viewed during the spring auction preview at Sotheby's, in New York. A sculpture of a kneeling Hitler and two Fauve period paintings are among the offerings at the impressionist, modern and contemporary art evening auctions at Sotheby's and Christie's in New York next week. Many of the works are fresh to the market, like a group of Alexander Calder sculptures at Christieâs and the Bacon diptych at Sothebyâs. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
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In this Friday, April 29, 2016 photo, an employee inspects "No. 17" by Mark Rothko, on display during the press preview of "Bound to Fail" at Christie's auction house in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
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In this Friday, April 29, 2016 photo, "Two Nudes in the Forest (The Earth Itself)" by Frida Khalo is on display during the press preview of "Bound to Fail" at Christie's auction house in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
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In this Friday, April 29, 2016 photo, "Mandolin with Partition (The Banjo)," center, by Georges Braque is on display next to 'Young Woman with a Rose," right by Amedeo Modigliani, and "Seated Woman" by Pablo Picasso during the press preview of "Bound to Fail" at Christie's auction house in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
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In this Friday, April 29, 2016 photo, a visitor inspects "Untitled" by Jean-Michel Basquiat on display during the press preview of "Bound to Fail" at Christie's auction house in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
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