Picasso set to break all records at US auction
Print Edition
PICASSO masterpiece “Les Femmes d’Alger” went on show for the first time in Hong Kong yesterday ahead of an auction where it is tipped to smash the world record price for a painting.
The 1955 piece depicts women in a harem and is the final work in a 15-painting series that pays homage to 19th-century artist Delacroix, whom Picasso admired.
The painting is expected to fetch US$140 million when it goes on sale at Christie’s in New York next month, but the auction house says the price could well go higher.
The current world record for a painting sold at auction is for Francis Bacon’s “Three Studies of Lucian Freud,” which sold for US$142 million in 2013, also at Christie’s in New York.
“It’s one of the great Picassos, and one of the last great Picassos that has been in private hands,” said Derek Gillman, chairman of Christie’s impressionist and modern art department.
“In terms of Picassos, it’s at the top end. It’s an extremely important piece,” he said.
The painting was unveiled at Christie’s in Hong Kong and will also go on show in London later this month.
As well as the Delacroix influence, the piece is a stylistic tribute to Picasso’s friend and rival, Henri Matisse, who died five weeks before Picasso began the series.
“It’s perfectly possible that it will break records,” Gillman said, adding that the growing number of wealthy private collectors around the world meant artworks are being “pushed to price levels we haven’t seen before.”
Christie’s has not identified the seller, but Gillman said another private buyer will likely snap it up as museums will struggle to find the money.
“There aren’t that many museums that can afford works at that level. Increasingly, works that might in the past have gone into museum collections have gone into private collections,” he said.
Christie’s concealed the Picasso behind a red curtain in Hong Kong yesterday before unveiling it at the preview.
It goes on show to the public today.
The piece will be the highlight of the “Looking Forward to the Past” sale in New York on May 11, which will also feature works by other masters of the 20th Century, including Monet, Magritte and Rothko.
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