The highly anticipated art auction season opened Sunday with a specially curated sale where a sculpture of a kneeling Hitler by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan fetched a record price for the artist.

Entitled simply "Him" the controversial sculpture of Hitler, appears as a small child kneeling in prayer when approached from the rear. But from the front, the viewer comes face-to-face with the unmistakable likeness of the 20th century dictator.

"Hitler is pure fear. It's an image of terrible pain. It even hurts to pronounce his name. And yet that name has conquered my memory. It lives in my head, even if it remains taboo,"Cattelan said. "I wanted to destroy it myself. I changed my mind a thousand times, every day."

'Extremely disconcerting'

Created in 2001, Catellan crafted the piece with human hair, wax and polyester resin

Catellan "defied the taboos of representation by disguising evil incarnate under a cloak of innocence," curator Loic Gouzer, a deputy chairman of Christie's auction house in New York, said.

The piece that sold is the artist's proof from an edition of three and was included in the artist's retrospective at the Guggenheim in 2011.

The previous record for a work by the 55-year-old Cattelan was $7.9 million

Some 1,500 pieces of art are to set to be auctioned over five days and are expected to fetch more than a billion dollars.

The world's 10 most expensive artworks Picasso's 'Women of Algiers': $179.4 million From 1954-55, Pablo Picasso did a series of 15 paintings inspired by Delacroix's "Les Femmes d'Alger," with versions named "A" through "O." He started them after the death of Henry Matisse, as a tribute to his friend and artistic rival. "Version O" broke the world record for an auction sale, selling for $179.4 million (167.1 million euros) at Christie's on May 11, 2015.

The world's 10 most expensive artworks Modigliani's 'Reclining Nude': $170.4 million At the Christie's auction held on November 9, 2015, seven potential buyers spent nine frantic minutes bidding on this painting. It was finally snapped by a telephone bidder from China. The nude, painted in 1917-18, provoked a scandal at its first exhibition in Paris. The police shut the art show down after a crowd gathered outside the window.

The world's 10 most expensive artworks Bacon's 'Three Studies of Lucian Freud': $142.4 million This 1969 triptych documents Francis Bacon's friendship and rivalry with fellow painter Lucian Freud. At the time it was sold, in November 2013, it obtained the highest price for a work of art at an auction, until Picasso - and now Modigliani - surpassed that record in 2015.

The world's 10 most expensive artworks Giacometti's 'Pointing Man': $141.3 million The Italian-Swiss master Alberto Giacometti holds quite a few records for auction sales, and he broke his own record in 2015, when the 1947 bronze sculpture "Pointing Man" was sold for $141.3 million at a Christie's auction. Not bad, considering it was created in a single night.

The world's 10 most expensive artworks Klimt's 'The Woman in Gold': $135 million This 1907 painting by Gustav Klimt is considered one the most elaborate and representative of his "golden phase." In 2006, it was sold through a private sale brokered by Christie's for a record sum for a painting, $135 million. That same year, Jackson Pollock's classic drip painting "No. 5 1948" broke that record, obtaining $140 million through another private sale.

The world's 10 most expensive artworks Munch's 'The Scream': $119.9 million This agonizing character painted by Edvard Munch is one of the most iconic paintings in the world. The Expressionist artist had actually made four versions of it: Three are in Norwegian museums, and the fourth one was sold for the screeching price of $119.9 million in May 2012 at Sotheby's.

The world's 10 most expensive artworks Picasso's 'Nude, Green Leaves and Bust': $106.5 million Inspired by his mistress Marie-Thérèse Walther, Picasso created this painting in a single day in 1932. If you add the eight minutes and six seconds it took for the auction record bid at Christie's in May 2010, it still appears to be well-invested time.

The world's 10 most expensive artworks Warhol's 'Silver Car crash': $105.4 million This 1963 double-panel work provocatively depicts a lifeless body right after a car crash. It obtained the largest sum paid for a work by the Pop artist at a Sotheby's auction in New York in November 2013.

The world's 10 most expensive artworks Picasso's 'Boy with a Pipe': $104.2 million This portrait of an adolescent holding a pipe and wearing a garland of flowers in his hair was created during the Spanish master's "Rose Period" in 1905. Just a little under a century later, the painting fetched an impressive sum at a Sotheby's auction in 2004.

The world's 10 most expensive artworks Giacometti's 'Walking Man I': $104.3 million Amidst the economic crisis, the stick-man sculpture fetched a record sum at the time of its auction in 2010. As opposed to the quick creation of "Pointing Man," Giacometti struggled to produced this iconic work, which was originally planned as part of a larger public commission in 1961. Author: Elizabeth Grenier



jar/bw (AP, AFP)