Gauguin sculpture of Tahitian girl sells for £6.8m

A rare wooden sculpture of a Tahitian girl by Paul Gauguin has sold for 11.3 million dollars (Ј6.8 million) at auction.

The Young Tahitian bust, last seen by the public in 1961, had been estimated to sell for 10 million dollars to 15 million dollars, the Sotheby's auction house said.

The sculpture is of a serene-looking Tahitian girl wearing large earrings and a necklace of coral and shells the French artist collected and strung himself. It is the only known fully worked three-dimensional bust he made.

He presented the sculpture, Jeune tahitienne in French, to a friend's 10-year-old daughter in 1894 after promising her he would bring her a gift from the South Seas.

Many years later, that girl, Jeanne Fournier, entrusted a Dominican priest to sell the sculpture. On June 28, 1961, it was consigned to a Sotheby's auction in London.

The nine-and-a-half inch sculpture had been in the possession of the current owner who lives in a north-eastern New England state since then. The owner's name has not been disclosed, AP reported.