Art world left guessing over who won bid on Hitler sculpture

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The mystery buyer who bid an eye-popping $17.2 million this past weekend for a sculpture of a kneeling Adolf Hitler might well be François-Henri Pinault, art world insiders are guessing.

Pinault, the CEO of Kering and husband to Salma Hayek, is a major art collector who owns Christie’s auction house, which sold the controversial Maurizio Cattelan piece. Pinault is opening a museum in Paris to exhibit his collection.

“There are clues [as to who the winning bidder is] that aren’t obvious,” one art consultant told me. “All three of the bidders who were taking instructions over the phone have connections to Christie’s.”

It is possible that Christie’s guaranteed the seller, hedge fund manager David Ganek, a certain price, and that Pinault was actually bidding against himself to reach it.

“There are all sorts of conspiracy theories,” the consultant said. The sale set an auction record for Cattelan. Pinault did not respond to The Post’s requests for comment.

Peter Brant was another potential bidder, since his art collection includes Cattelan’s topless bust of his wife, Stephanie Seymour. Collectors often bid to keep the market high for artwork from artists they already own.

Painter Walter Robinson called the Hitler puppet “the most cynical avant-garde artwork in history,” and told me the most likely buyer was Qatari Sheik Khalifa Al-Thani, who has spent billions of dollars to fill the I.M. Pei-designed Museum of Islamic Art Doha.

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