Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by The Art Newspaper, an editorial partner of CNN Style.

A deep-pocketed collector with room to spare could snare one of the most famous contemporary sculptures in her or his web next month, when Louise Bourgeois’ famed “Spider” hits the auction block at Sotheby’s in New York.

The work, over 10 feet tall and more than 18 feet across, is expected to bring in between $30 million and $40 million — meaning it is very likely to break at least one auction record, if not several.

If the work achieves at its low estimate, once Sotheby’s fees are accounted for, it would likely become the artist’s most expensive work at auction and the most expensive sculpture by a female artist ever sold at auction, surpassing another Bourgeois “Spider” that sold for $28 million ($32.1 million with fees) at Christie’s in May 2019. If it sells at or above its high estimate, the present “Spider” could come within web-slinging distance of the record for any work by a female artist at auction, currently the $44.4 million (with fees) that Walmart heiress Alice Walton’s Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas paid for Georgia O’Keeffe’s painting “Jimson Weed” in 2014.

The 10-foot-tall artwork is one of just four Bourgeois' "Spider" sculptures ever to appear at auction.

“Spider” is being offered by Fundação Itaú, the nonprofit arm of Brazilian bank Itaú Unibanco. The sculpture was acquired by Olavo Setubal, an art collector and co-founder of the bank, after it was featured as the centerpiece of a special presentation of works by Bourgeois at the 1996 São Paulo Biennial, for which the French-American artist also designed a distinctive, spiraling logo. The sculpture was on loan to the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art from 1997 to 2017, and was subsequently displayed at various Brazilian institutions.

In the years since “Spider’s” acquisition, Fundação Itaú has shifted its collecting priorities to focus on works by artists based in Brazil. Proceeds from the sculpture’s sale will support those efforts.

Works from Bourgeois’ “Spiders” series are on prominent display at many of the world’s leading museums, including the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Dia Beacon in New York and Tate Modern in London.

Members of the public admire Eduardo Basualdo's artwork 'TEORIA' at the Frieze London art fair on October 16, 2013 in London, England. The annual Frieze Art Fair takes place in London's Regent's Park and runs from October 17 to 20. The exhibition comprises of the Frieze Masters exhibition and Frieze London which aim to showcase historic and established art as well as contemporary works.
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02:36 - Source: CNN

“The ‘Spider’ has become a global icon, recognizable by all given its prominent presence in cultural institutions around the world,” David Galperin, Sotheby’s head of contemporary art in New York, said in a statement. “It is not only a paragon of modern sculpture, but has taken on a larger symbolic presence within contemporary culture internationally.”

The present “Spider” will go on display at Sotheby’s headquarters in New York on May 6 before being offered in the house’s marquee evening sale of contemporary art on May 18. The same sale will feature a similarly austere large-scale work by Jean-Michel Basquiat, “Now’s the Time,” which is expected to bring more than $30 million.