A Henry Moore marble statuette was sold for more than one million pounds at auction in London on Tuesday, a record price for a carving by the British sculptor.
Auction house Bonhams said the 1,069,600 pound ($1.84 million) price paid by a private collector made the 22.3 cm (8.8 inch) "Mother and Child" the most expensive 20th century work of art sold in London this year.
Moore's large bronze artworks have already fetched far higher prices. A 15-foot sculpture went for $6.2 million in 2003, beating the previous best for a work by Moore of $4.1 million in 1999.
Moore carved the bottle-green figure sold on Tuesday in 1931 from the finest verde di Prato marble and later described it as "one of my best earlier pieces".
It was sold the same year for just under 19 pounds to Sir Eric Maclagan, the director of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
Maclagan meticulously noted the purchase of the figure in his domestic accounts alongside more prosaic entries for a beige stair carpet, a sewing machine and a refrigerator.
Until Tuesday's sale the statuette had not been seen in public since a London exhibition in 1968.
The previous record for a Moore carving was set in 1991 when a wooden figure sold for $342,000.
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