A painting that Picasso created in a single day in March 1932, “Nu au Plateau de Sculpteur (Nude, Green Leaves and Bust),” sold for $106.5 million, a world record auction price for a work of art, at Christie’s Tuesday night. The painting, more than 5 feet by 4 feet, shows Picasso’s mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter, both reclining and as a bust. Picasso’s profile can be discerned in the blue background.
The painting broke the record price for a work of art set in February when a Giacometti sculpture, “Walking Man I,” was sold for $104.3 million at Sotheby’s in London. Bidding for the Picasso lasted 8 minutes and 6 seconds; there were six bidders. Nicholas Hall, an expert at Christie’s, took the winning bid by telephone. He declined to say who he was bidding for.
Giacomettis were also selling well on Tuesday night. “Grande Tête Mince,” a distinctive narrow bust, was bought by Guy Bennett, a private New York dealer, for a final price of $53.3 million, well over its estimate of $25 million to $35 million. “Le Chat,” an elongated bronze cat, sold for $20.8 million. And “La Main,” an outstretched arm and hand with fingers spread wide, went for $25.8 million in about six and a half minutes of bidding. It had been expected to bring $10 million to $15 million.
Final prices include the commission to Christie’s; estimates do not.
“Nu au Plateau” comes from the collection of the Los Angeles philanthropist Frances Lasker Brody, who died in November and was the wife of the real estate developer Sidney F. Brody. It is one of a group from the Brody estate being sold at Christie’s this spring, including works by Matisse, Braque and Giacometti. The painting has been publicly exhibited only once since 1951, the last time it changed hands. The year it was painted, 1932, is considered a turning point for the artist; it was then that he began creating luscious canvases of Marie-Thérèse that were unlike anything he had done before: bigger and more sensual.
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