In a recent auction at London’s Sloane Street Auctions, an “exceedingly rare” bronze cast of Egon Schiele’s death mask fetched $24,600—over ten times its estimated price. The mask, created by Austrian sculptor Gustinus Ambrosi just two days after Schiele’s death in 1918 from the Spanish Flu, was one of only four casts made. Ambrosi produced one for himself, one for Schiele’s mother, one for art critic Arthur Roessler, and another for Schiele’s publisher Richard Lanyi. The auction house noted uncertainty about the existence of additional copies.
The mask was one of 600 lots featured in the sale, which also included items ranging from Buddhist sculptures and Orientalist paintings to Persian rugs and Renaissance artworks. Other high-performing pieces included *Dedham Mill Pool* by Sir Alfred Munnings, which sold for $62,300, and an oil painting attributed to Renoir, titled *Study of a Girl in a Hat,* which realized $49,300.
This sale follows a recent Christie’s auction in May, where two of Schiele’s works on paper, *Schwarzes Mädchen* (1911) and *Stehender Akt mit Draperietuch,* each sold for $1.19 million. Both pieces were previously restituted to the heirs of Fritz Grünbaum, an Austrian Jewish cabaret performer whose art collection was allegedly seized by the Nazis before his death in the Holocaust.
