The legendary actress visits Christie’s galleries at Rockefeller Center and finds herself captivated by the gilded sculpture.

Like some ancient oracle, Brancusi's sleek forms unleash visionary insights. Nicole Kidman dances around a sculpture, her face convulsed by its extrasensory revelations.

Danaïde left the block for a record $107.6 million, breaking the record for auctioned sale of a sculpture. Whether Kidman’s performance inched the price upward remains unclear. It nevertheless undeniably played into a moment of renewed attention to the artist.

The Romanian-born Brancusi (1876–1957) bequeathed his estate to the French government on one condition: that his 15th arrondissement studio be reconstructed and preserved in perpetuity. Ongoing renovations at Centre Pompidou have set the workspace and its wide-ranging contents on the road.

More than 150 sculptures—along with works on paper, photographs, and extensive archival material—provide an expansive survey of one of the twentieth century’s most influential artists. Yet some curatorial choices at Neue Nationalgalerie rendered the experiment fraught in places.