Louise Bourgeois (1911 - 2010)

3. Louise Bourgeois (1911 - 2010), with $32.8 million for Spider (1996), sold at Christie's New York in 2019; it is the most expensive sculpture by a woman sold at auction. The spider recurs in the repertoire of the Parisian naturalised American artist as a symbol of maternity (marble eggs seem to be enclosed in her body), but also of the darker, more venomous feminine.