Heirs to reap 1.4M% return on a brass Brancusi

Great art investments often come down to one simple thing: holding for as long as possible.

That’s certainly true for a Constantin Brancusi sculpture to be offered at Christie’s Impressionist and modern art auction May 15. Americans Elizabeth and Frederick Stafford were in Paris in 1955 when they bought the work directly from the artist for about $5,000. Today, the 31-inchtall piece is estimated at more than $70 million. That’s about a 1,400,000 percent return over 63 years (compared with a mere 39,000 percent for the S&P 500 Index). The money will go to the couple’s three children, who plan to distribute some of it among the charitable causes they hold dear, including art, education and opera, said their daughter, Alexandra Stafford.

Cast in brass, the singular 1932 work is titled “La Jeune fille sophistiquee (Portrait de Nancy Cunard)” and depicts the head of a woman with a ponytail. The sculpture was inspired by the blue-eyed English heiress, a civil rights champion and wartime journalist who played tennis with Ernest Hemingway and was a muse to Surrealist artist Andre Breton. Alexandra Stafford said she always thought the title represented her mother, who died in January.

“Coming from New Orleans and going to Paris, she was a bit shy and timid,” she said. “It took her a while to learn how to dress and be as sophisticated as a French lady.”

Christie’s estimate puts the work on track to smash last year’s $57.4 million auction record for the Romanian-born artist (18761957) and become one of the most expensive sculptures ever sold.