AO Breaking Auction News: Record $106.5 million paid for Pablo Picasso’s 1932 portrait of his mistress at Christie’s, New York
May 5th, 2010
Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, Pablo Picasso
A 1932 portrait of Picasso’s busty mistress, Marie-Thérèse Walter, titled Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, became the most expensive work of art ever to sell at auction this evening when it realized $106,482,500 at Christie’s Impressionist and Modern evening sale. The previous record was set only three months ago when Alberto Giacometti’s bronze sculpture L’homme qui marche I went for $104,327,006 at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale in London. Estimated to sell for $70 to 90 million, bidding for the much-talked-about from the estate of the Los Angeles philanthropist Frances Lasker Brody started at $58 million, eventually hitting the $95 million mark after nine minutes of furious contest between eight rivals – buyers premium takes the price of the painting to the record-breaking figure. The eventual winner was an anonymous client on the telephone with Nicholas Hall, International Department Head of Old Master Paintings at the auction house.
More news from the sale will follow shortly..
