NEW YORK, Nov 8 (Reuters) – Pablo Picasso’s 1932 portray “Femme à la montre” bought for greater than $139 million on Wednesday at a Sotheby’s New York public sale, making it essentially the most precious murals bought globally at an public sale this 12 months.
The work is a standout of New York Metropolis’s fall artwork public sale season, seen by many as a bellwether for the artwork market. It went below the hammer as a part of an estimated $400 million sale of the gathering of late philanthropist Emily Fisher Landau.
The nine-digit value made it the second most-expensive Picasso portray to promote at public sale, behind “Les femmes d’Alger (Model ‘O’),” which fetched $179.3 million, together with a purchaser’s premium, at Christie’s in 2015.
“Femme à la montre,” which interprets from French to “Lady with a Watch,” is a portrait of the artist’s lover Marie-Thérèse Walter seated in a throne-like chair towards a blue background. The titular wristwatch is a motif additionally seen in paintings Picasso fabricated from his spouse, Russian-Ukrainian ballerina Olga Khokhlova.
Pablo Picasso’s 1932 portray “Femme a la Montre” is displayed at an public sale at Sotheby’s, in New York Metropolis, U.S., November 8, 2023. REUTERS/Ben Kellerman Acquire Licensing Rights
Walter was 17 years outdated when she met the 45-year-old Picasso in Paris, and the 2 later entered right into a secret relationship whereas he was nonetheless married to Khokhlova. Walter grew to become his topic for numerous artworks, together with the 1932 portray “Femme nue couchée,” which bought for $67.5 million at public sale in 2022.
Picasso painted “Femme à la montre” at a pivotal 12 months in his profession. At 50 years outdated, he had already achieved widespread fame by 1932 however ramped up his ambitions to silence critics who questioned “whether or not he was an artist of the previous relatively than the long run,” in line with the Tate Trendy museum.
Fisher Landau purchased the portray from New York’s Tempo Gallery in 1968 and saved it above the mantle in her Manhattan residence, in line with Sotheby’s.
An nameless purchaser beat out two different bidders for the portray.
Reporting by Ben Kellerman; Enhancing by Rod Nickel
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