Phone sells for £853,000 at auction

[Owain]

One of the world's most famous Surrealist art works has been bought by the National Galleries of Scotland to stop it leaving the country.

Salvador Dali's Lobster Telephone was sold at auction but was "saved for the nation" after UK museums were given the chance to match the sale price.

The famous sculpture will now go on display at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh.

It was bought for £853,000, most of which came from a private fund.

It is one of 11 lobster telephones made for Dali's patron Edward James in the 1930s.

James was born in 1907 at his family's summer house, Greywalls, at Gullane, in East Lothian.

His family was immensely wealthy, owning a vast estate at West Dean in West Sussex

The lobster receivers were made to fit to telephones at James's house in Wimpole Street, central London, and at West Dean.

Four of the lobsters were painted red, and seven were painted white.

The Lobster Telephones are now almost all in museum collections around the world.

The Tate Modern in London has a red version on a black telephone.

The white version acquired by the National Galleries of Scotland had remained with the Edward James Foundation in West Sussex.

It was sold at auction but because of its "artistic and historical importance" it was subject to an export licence deferral.

This allowed the National Galleries to match the amount it had sold for.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-46564867

Attached file picture credit: National Galleries of Scotland

[HarrySmith]

WOW!!! That's over a miilion dollars

$1,076,008.32 !!

[LarryInMichigan]

One of the world's most famous Surrealist art works has been bought by the National Galleries of Scotland to stop it leaving the country.
Salvador Dali's Lobster Telephone was sold at auction but was "saved for the nation" after UK museums were given the chance to match the sale price.

If it were in my country, I would consider paying to make it leave.

Larry

[twocvbloke]

That's one expensive crustacean, hope they included butter to go with it... 

[HarrySmith]

Now watch for all the fakes to come up with ridiculous prices! We have a topic with a few of them:

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=3970.0

[RB]

I'm with Larry on that one,,,yuck!

[FABphones]

Now watch for all the fakes....

Well I've enough ivory spares to make the Bakelite section, a half used ivory rattlecan in the garage, and I'm sure me mates Nan has one of those plastic lobsters on her kitchen wall......   

[twocvbloke]

Maybe someone could create a "modern" take on the Lobsterphone, using an NT Dawn phone and turning it into a "Crabphone"... 

[Butch Harlow]

There have been fakes of this on Ebay for a long time. Let's see if I can find one...

[Butch Harlow]

Instantly...

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F122798861336

[Babybearjs]

LOL! this is crazy! why would ANYONE want one of these, original or not! the artist must have really been bored or some dumb fool commissioned him to create that monstrosity! OMG! what an UGLY phone! British, or not!

[Dan F]

twenty bucks!

[LarryInMichigan]

I suppose that the proper protocol when answering a call with that phone is to say "Hello Dali"

[Dan/Panther]

Larry I'm with you....WHY  What a perfectly useless piece of art.

D/P

[tubaman]

Mounting the dial finger wheel on top of the stop must have taken some doing!

So, a phone that would usually fetch about £300 is worth £853K because Dali has stuck a resin lobster on the top. The world has gone crazy!