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An American company in cooperation with the Christie's auction house has created a hologram of the famous sculptural work by Edgar Degas titled "little fourteen-year-old dancer". The projection of the sculpture is currently on display at Christie's in San Francisco, and will then be presented in Hong Kong. Is this the future of the art market?

From a wax sculpture to a hologram of Degas' 14-year-old dancer

The story of the "little fourteen-year-old dancer" began in 1880 (perhaps already in 1879), when one of the most renowned French impressionists, famous for his depictions of ballerinas, made a portrait of Marie van Goethem, a French pupil and dancer at the Paris Opera. The work surprised the public just one year later when it was presented at the sixth Impressionist exhibition. The audience saw a wax figure of a teenage girl dressed in a cotton corset, silk-cotton tutu and ballet shoes. A wig of natural hair with a silk ribbon completed the look. The naturalism of the depiction shocked the critics and, under the pressure of criticism, Edgar Degas decided never to present any of his sculptures to the public again.

After Degas' death, his heirs decided to cast the sculpture in question and other wax sculptures in bronze. In 1956, financier Paul Mellon acquired the wax original and in 1985 donated it to the National Gallery of Art in Washington. In 2022, Los Angeles-based company Proto made a hologram of one of the sculpture's casts, which will be auctioned at Christie's in May with an estimate of around $20-30 million.

Pros of the project by Porto and Christie's auction house

Transporting a work of art is usually a difficult and expensive undertaking. The safety of the objects has to be taken care of, all the logistics have to be planned, and the journey has to be insured. Full-size, excellent holograms of artworks can be a solution for potential buyers who want to see the work before making their final decision. Moreover, this seems to be an ecological and, in the future, cost-cutting solution. In the face of current challenges of the modern world (e.g. constantly rising petrol prices, the political instability of the continent), it is also a possibly necessary solution. According to Proto's vision, all that is needed is a special display case (suitable for easy transport) and dedicated software.  

Added 2022-04-29 in by Alicja Graczyk

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