At last there is a conspicuous connection between what has been growing together for a long time.
On the occasion of Picasso's 140th birthday - he was born on October 25, 1881 in Málaga, Spain - Sotheby's will hold an auction of his works on October 23 - in Las Vegas.
According to the announcement, it will be the largest and most important art auction ever to take place in the desert city in Nevada;
what one would like to believe.
Eleven paintings, works on paper and ceramics by the master of all classes from a period of fifty years will be auctioned;
the lower total is estimated at $ 70.5 million.
The works come from the art collection of MGM Resorts, which also owns the Hotel-Casino Bellagio, where the Picassos have hanged up to now and where the event takes place.
Rose-Maria Gropp
Editor in the features section, responsible for the “art market”.
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There is an additional punch line that the New York auction room of Sotheby's is being recreated in the Bellagio: the backdrop in the backdrop as certification of authenticity.
So that it really becomes a first-of-its-kind art and entertainment experience, the exhibition is accompanied by what is called a selection of the most exquisite luxury objects in the world;
they will be auctioned live and online in New York later in October.
With so much glamor, who could resist?
The Picassos that are now being sold used to belong to Steve Wynn, the former "casino mogul" of Las Vegas, along with his former company Mirage Resorts. He had acquired the paintings in the 1990s for the "Picasso Restaurant" in Bellagio, which he opened in 1998. They stayed there until now, even after MGM Resorts, which operates hotels and casinos, took over Mirage Resorts in 2000.
The most important of the paintings to be auctioned is “Femme au béret rouge-orange” from 1938. It is a portrait of Marie-Thérèse Walter, Picasso's lover since 1927 and mother of his daughter Maya, who was born in 1935. The expectation is twenty to thirty million dollars. The portrait, which once belonged to Marina Picasso, the daughter of Picasso's son Paulo from his marriage to Olga Khokhlova, was last auctioned in 1987 at Christie's in New York for, according to Artprice, 880,000 dollars; Steve Wynn then bought it from Acquavella Galleries in 1998. What makes this portrait of the woman in the beret very special is that it seems to merge the facial features of Marie-Thérèse Walter with those of Dora Maar.Picasso had known Maar since 1936 and had a liaison with her (while he was also still married to Olga Khokhlova). Portraits of Walter from this period are quite rare.
Earlier works on which she immortalized Picasso are the most expensive in the art market, mainly because of the erotic design of their subject: “Nu au plateau de sculpteur” from 1932 cost 106.5 million dollars in May 2010; “Femme asisse près d'une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse)”, also in 1932, in May of this year 103.4 million dollars (each including buyer's premium). And one remembers: One of the Picassos that used to belong to Steve Wynn is “Le rêve”, probably the most famous painting of the young woman slumbering in an armchair - with the most famous story: In 2006, Wynn wanted it to be the hedge fund manager and collector colleague Steven Cohen for sale at the then record price of $ 139 million. He accidentally damaged it with his elbow when showing it to friends; a crack a good six inches long appeared.The deal did not take place at first; Cohen took over the restored picture in 2013 for allegedly $ 155 million.
The current offer also includes an attractive “Nature morte au panier de fruits et aux fleurs”, painted on August 2, 1942 (estimate 10/15 million dollars). There are also two late works: “Homme et enfant”, a 195 centimeter high large format, dated by Picasso on July 4, 1969 (20/30 million), and a “Buste d'homme”, created on September 10, 1969 (10/15 million). For lovers of Picasso ceramics, there is a long-necked water jug made of terracotta from 1954, decorated with a smiling face, which first belonged to Jacqueline Picasso (60,000 / 80,000).
The reason for the spectacular auction is that MGM Resorts is renovating its art portfolio. A few more Picassos will be kept, among other works. But the company's stated goal is to build a more inclusive collection that gives artists from previously underrepresented groups greater weight. This is an intention that is as laudable as it is probably owed to the current horizon of needs. In addition, there may be the economic calculation that makes the timing seem perfect. Because after such a long pandemic phase, financially potent buyers worldwide demand capital, at least investment-safe works of art. Accordingly, the top pieces will also travel to Taipei and Hong Kong before the auction in the desert.
At their station earlier in September in New York, the Picassos will also encounter the finest luxury items - cars, jewelery and watches, handbags and sneakers - with which they already appeared together in Las Vegas. By the way, when Picasso approached Marie-Thérèse Walter, when she was seventeen years old, on the street in front of the Galeries Lafayette in Paris in 1927, she had no idea who she was looking at. "I have a feeling we're going to do great things together," he told her. And from his perspective, he was right - all the way to Las Vegas.