“Thanks to public and media attention, the auctioned object’s status has risen to unprecedented heights,” Russian Auction House deputy director Pavel Zhirunov said in a statement.
“Its sale through an auction has fueled this interest and made the art object not only a subject of discussion, but also of investment,” Zhirunov said.
The auction house listed the buyer’s name as Yelena Nikolayevna Osipova, one of four participants in the three-hour bidding war. The Open Russia investigative outlet said the auction house declined to provide further details about the buyer.
The scandalous sculpture’s starting price stood at 1 million …
