Degas ballet sculpture sells for record price

LONDON (Reuters) -- A bronze of a young ballet dancer by Edgar Degas sold in London for 7.7 million pounds ($11.6 million), an auction record for any sculpture in Europe, Sotheby's auctioneers said Wednesday.

"Petite Danseuse de quatorze ans" (Little dancer aged 14), one of the French master's best-known works which depicts the young girl with her tutu and hair ribbon, was bought by an anonymous private collector bidding by telephone.

The statue was first seen publicly at the sixth Impressionist exhibition in 1881.

Also at Tuesday night's London sale, Claude Monet's "La Plage a Trouville" (The Beach at Trouville), painted in 1870, sold for 11 million pounds to a private collector.

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