{"id":9204,"date":"2026-04-21T01:59:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T01:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/9204\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T01:59:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T01:59:33","slug":"who-was-claude-lalanne-getting-to-know-the-legendary-french-sculptor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/9204\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Was Claude Lalanne? Getting to Know the Legendary French Sculptor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paywall\">\u201cLalanne can certainly go backward and be presented against historical and revival styles, and also go forward and go with contemporary art,\u201d said Jodi Pollack, Sotheby\u2019s co-worldwide head of 20th-century design, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.architecturaldigest.com\/story\/claude-lalanne-sothebys-22-million\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"text link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">when she spoke with AD PRO about the auction results<\/a>. \u201cThey\u2019re pure sculpture, they\u2019re magical, they\u2019re great fun, and they can go alongside just about anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The legacy of Claude Lalanne<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Image may contain Person Sitting and Adult\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"ResponsiveImageContainer-dkeESL cQPiWi responsive-image__image\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-1141758666%20(2).jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Claude Lalanne with Fran\u00e7ois-Xavier\u2019s Rhinoceros desk in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Photo: Luc Castel\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">When Claude passed away in April 2019 at the age of 94, French president Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, released a statement of condolence that acknowledged how Claude and Fran\u00e7ois-Xavier, who died in 2008, blended \u201cimagination, humor and poetry\u201d to create works of art that \u201cre-enchanted the familiar and the functional.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Fran\u00e7ois-Xavier commanded fresh attention again in 2025, when his Hippopotame Bar realized $31.4 million at Sotheby\u2019s, establishing a new world auction record for the artist and the most valuable design object ever sold at auction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Posthumously, Claude\u2019s work has also grown in relevance, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.architecturaldigest.com\/story\/these-pioneering-female-artists-and-designers-are-more-relevant-than-ever\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"text link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">continuing to ascend the ranks of art and design history<\/a> on the strength of international exhibitions and record auction results. \u201cEverything is very playful and whimsical yet serves a purpose\u2014and it\u2019s made to be used,\u201d Edith Dicconson, organizer of a 2019 exhibit of Claude\u2019s work at the Kasmin Gallery, told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.architecturaldigest.com\/story\/claude-lalanne-brilliant-sculptor-of-joyful-works-has-died\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"text link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">AD PRO<\/a>. \u201cEverything is made very, very well, and has stood the test of time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cLalanne can certainly go backward and be presented against historical and revival styles, and also go forward and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[53,3154,7923,182,7922],"class_list":["post-9204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anthropic","tag-anthropic","tag-anthropic-claude","tag-auctions","tag-claude","tag-claude-lalanne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}