Winter Bears

1988 / Polychrome wood / 37 × 24 × 16 in (94 × 61 × 40.6 cm) / Edition 1/3 + 1AP

From Jeff Koons's landmark Banality series, Winter Bears (1988) is a polychrome wood sculpture depicting two teddy bears in a pastoral winter scene, fabricated using historical Rococo woodcarving techniques in German and Italian workshops. The work epitomizes Koons's strategy of elevating mass-culture imagery to fine-art status through meticulous craft and monumental ambition. Edition 1/3, from the collection of Barbara Jakobson, sold at Christie's in March 2026 for $7.6 million — the highest price ever achieved for an artwork in a mid-season sale, against a pre-sale estimate of $3.8–5 million. Edition 2/3 is held by the Tate collection in London. Edition 3/3 and the artist's proof are in private collections; the AP last sold at Christie's in 2011 for $4.7 million. The Banality series (1988) marked Koons's transition from appropriated consumer objects to fabricated sculptures that collapsed the distinction between kitsch and high art. Other works from the series — Michael Jackson and Bubbles, Pink Panther — are among the most iconic and valuable sculptures of the late 20th century.