Eleven works by Pablo Picasso belonging to the American hotel-casino group MGM Resorts, including a portrait of his French muse Marie-Thérèse Walter, brought in US $ 108.87 million at an auction organized by the house on Saturday. Sotheby’s at the famous Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas known for its art collection.
The jewel of this sale, two days before 140e birthday of the Spanish painter, was the famous painting “Woman with a red-orange beret”, one of the last portraits made by the artist of Marie-Thérèse Walter, his muse and lover of the 1930s.
The work, estimated between 20 and 30 million dollars, sold for 40.47 million. Picasso painted the mother of his daughter Maya in January 1938 when he already had an affair with photographer Dora Maar, during “one of Picasso’s most inspired and productive periods”, “according to Sotheby’s.
Two other iconic portraits executed by the painter during the last years of his life were sold, “Man and Child” for $ 24.39 million and “Bust of a Man” for 9.45 million – or below the initial estimate of 10 million.
Presented by the painter in his 1970 exhibition at the Palais des Papes in Avignon (South of France), these portraits were made between January 5, 1969 and February 2, 1970.
Other works donated at this auction included ceramics, drawings and still lifes.
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