A new sculpture to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the iconic Jaguar E-type has been unveiled at Goodwood on the first day of the Festival of Speed.

The monument, built out of piping, soars 28 meters into the sky in front of Goodwood House and will be one of the first things to greet visitors arriving to the motoring festival, which kicked off June 30.

The piece was created in the model of an up-ended E-type by the sculptor Gerry Judah, using steel supplied by another offshoot of Jaguar’s parent company, Tata.

A large bronze sculpture of a woman’s back by Henri Matisse sold Wednesday for nearly 49 million dollars, setting a new record for the French impressionist.

Measuring 74.5 inches (189.2 cm), “Nu de dos” was the star of the auction at Christie’s in New York.

It went under the hammer just a day after rival Sotheby’s auctioned an Amedeo Modigliani painting for a record 69 million dollars.

“Nu de dos, 4 etat (Back IV),” had been estimated to sell for between 25 and 35 million dollars, before a bidding war sent the price spiraling to 48,802,500 dollars.

Renowned French artist Xavier Veilhan has produced a brand new work of monochrome “sculpture” in collaboration with the Frauscher shipyard in Austria.

A sculpted stone head by artist Amedeo Modigliani sold at Christie’s in Paris on Monday for euro 43.2 million, breaking the record for a work by the Italian artist.

The sculpture dated from between 1910 and 1912 and had been estimated at between four and six million euros.

“It’s a record for a work by the artist in any category”, including paintings and sculptures, said Christie’s, which organised the sale.

London-based billionaire Lily Safra is the buyer of the Alberto Giacometti sculpture that fetched a record $103.4 million at a London auction.

“It was a freak result,” said Philip Hoffman, chief executive of the London-based Fine Art Fund.

“But there are wealthy people out there desperate to buy rare pieces and when something important comes up with a sensible estimate the bidding goes crazy.”

Safra is the widow of Lebanese banker Edmond Safra, who passed away in 1999.

Alberto Giacometti’s “L’Homme Qui Marche” set a record for the most expensive piece of art ever sold by auction when it was sold on February 3.

The Swiss artist’s characteristic sculpture of an elongated figure in bronze garnered a record-breaking 65 million pounds ($104.3 million) when it went under the hammer at Sotheby’s in London.

Prior to the auction the record was held by Spanish cubist Pablo Picasso’s 1906 portrait Garçon à la pipe (“Boy With a Pipe”), according to the Mirror.co.uk.