Not everyone had an idea with whom the famous top model Karlie Kloss was smiling at photographers during a tour of the Christian Dior house in New York. A sympathetic older man who is a big fan of fashion, but also an absolute star of the contemporary art scene.

Photo: SITA/AP , Evan Agostini

Artist Jeff Koons and supermodel Karlie Kloss at the Dior Pre-Fall 2024 fashion show held at the Brooklyn Museum in New York.

Next to the American beauty, the organizers of the Pre-Fall 2024 show seated the artist Jeff Koons, the most expensive contemporary artist on the planet. Koons, the author of many forms and works with a diverse and very broad scope, has held the aforementioned title since 2019.

Thanks for this goes to his iconic work – Rabbit (Hare) – one of a trio of sculptures made of stainless steel, which depicts a silver rabbit holding a carrot and which resembles an inflated amusement park balloon in shape and form.

The processing of the statue is really delicate, while there are three specimens from the rabbit series in the world. In 2019, a work of art less than a meter high was sold for $91.1 million at a Christie’s auction.

At the same time, the expectations were significantly lower, representatives of the auction house thought that the bidders would climb to a maximum of 70 million dollars.

Photo: Yui Mok / PA Images / Profimedia

American artist Jeff Koons in a shot with his work Rabbit (1986), the photo was taken in 2009.

Koons thus broke the record, which was held by another living artist – the British painter David Hockney – for just a few months. His painting titled Portrait of the Artist (Pool with Two Figures) sold for $90.8 million in 2018.

The American Jeff Koons celebrated his 69th birthday this year and is one of the most famous living artists. He has been married to his former employee and fellow artist Justine Wheeler for nearly three decades.

Also interestingly, Koons was also married to Italian-Hungarian porn star and later politician Ilona Staler, known as Cicciolina. They worked together on a work known as Made in Heaven, large-format photo paintings or sculptures on which they pose together.

Their marriage ended with accusations against Koons of emotional and physical abuse and lawsuits. He won for their common son Ludwig with the help of a renowned law firm, but Ilona Staller had to kidnap the boy to Rome.

She was acquitted of the charges, and finally in 2019 she was awarded several million for the fact that the auction house Sotheby’s auctioned the Made in Heaven series without granting the rights from Staller.