Picasso artworks in Las Vegas sell for more than $100 million
The sale was part of a bid by MGM Resorts to diversify its
collection to include more art from women, people of color and emerging nations
as well as from LGBTQ artists and artists with disabilities.
Eleven Picasso paintings and other works that helped turn
Las Vegas into an unlikely destination for art were sold at auction on Saturday
for more than $100 million.
The Sotheby’s auction was held at the Bellagio hotel in Las
Vegas, where the works had been on display for years, and took place two days
before the 140th birthday of the Spanish artist on Oct. 25.
Five of the paintings had hung on the walls of the
Bellagio’s fine dining restaurant, Picasso. The restaurant will continue to
display 12 other Picasso works.
The highest price was fetched by the 1938 painting “Femme au
beret rouge-orange” of Picasso’s lover and muse Marie-Therese Walter, which
sold for $40.5 million, some $10 million over the high pre-sale estimate.
The large-scale portraits “Homme et Enfant” and “Buste
d’homme” sold for $24.4 million and $9.5 million respectively, while smaller
works on ceramic, like “Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe” which sold for $2.1 million,
went for three or four times their pre-sale estimate.
The buyers’ names were not disclosed.
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