Picasso painting sells for £28million at Sotheby’s sale

Luke Jacobs Wednesday, February 6, 2013
12:01 PM

A 1932 portrait by Picasso was sold for a total of £28.6million at Sotheby’s last night.

The painting went to an unnamed telephone bidder following an auction.

It was part of a series of works that revealed his lover, Marie-Thérèse, to the public eye for the first time. The auction house said she came to represent love, sex and desire in the early 20th century.

The entire Impression and Modern Art auction raised a total of £104million. Another notable sale was Claude Monet’s Nymphéas avec reflets de hautes herbes, which dates from 1914-17. It sold under its reserve price for £9m.

Helena Newman, from Sotheby’s, said: “We are delighted with the outstanding results of tonight’s sale, a total for Sotheby’s London that is second only to our historic sale in 2010 of Giacometti’s Walking Man, the highest price achieved at auction at the time.

“Tonight’s sale, which included museum-quality works and many that have never before appeared at auction, or have been in private collections for many years, drew buyers from across the world.

“Bidders, both new to the market as well as seasoned buyers, reacted with great enthusiasm, in particular to the selection of Impressionist works that were considered to be the strongest offering in many years.”