Consigned by a German noble family, the previously unrecorded sculpture of a mythological figure supporting the globe was estimated at £5m-8m. The withdrawal came the night before the sale after issues relating to the export licence became apparent.
Christie's issued the following statement: "We were recently informed of additional information, about which we were unaware, that affects the validity of the existing export licence for this recently discovered work. As we take strict compliance with export regulation extremely seriously we have withdrawn the sculpture from the auction on the evening of July 7 and the application has been resubmitted."
