Another great sale for Pablo Picasso.
The painting
Woman seated near a window (Marie-Thérèse)
was sold Thursday for 103.4 million dollars during an auction organized at Christie's, in New York.
The 1.46m by 1.14m canvas, painted in 1932, sold for $ 90 million, raised to 103.4 when added fees and commissions, after a more than 19-minute battle between collectors.
The work, which depicts Picasso's mistress and muse, Marie-Thérèse Walter, has almost doubled the amount of the initial estimate provided by Christie's, namely $ 55 million.
The sale confirms the vitality of the art market, which has not really suffered from the pandemic, but also the special status of Pablo Picasso (1881-1973).
Only 14 paintings topped $ 100 million at auction
The same painting was acquired only eight years ago by the seller, at a sale in London, for 28.6 million pounds, or about 44.8 million dollars, less than half the price offered on Thursday .
Five works by the Spanish painter have now crossed the symbolic threshold of $ 100 million.
Even before this sale, he was already alone at the head of this very closed club, with four paintings, including
Les femmes d'Alger
, which holds the record for a Picasso, at 179.4 million dollars, in May 2015.
Only 14 paintings exceeded $ 100 million at auction.
Besides Picasso, the Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani is the only one to have more than one on the list, with two copies.
This is the first time in two years that a work has crossed this threshold, since a copy of the
Haystacks
series
by Claude Monet had reached 110.7 million at Sotheby's, already in New York.
On Tuesday, the canvas
In This Case
by American painter Jean-Michel Basquiat sold for $ 93.1 million at Christie's during the first of the major spring sales, one of the two most important events in the auction world. .
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