Hats off to Art!
And wallets, wide open…. 
A Picasso painting was purchased for almost $106.5 million, a record for any single work of art sold at auction, according to Christies’s New York. (Note, only a portion of the painting is shown in the CNN illustration. The entire paining is reproduced in the Wikipedia article linked below. I kept asking myself, “Where’s the bust?”)
The painting, “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” sold for $106,482,500 to an unidentified bidder who phoned in the bid.
Christie’s lead auctioneer, Christopher Burge conducted nine minutes of bidding among eight clients, both in the room and over the phone. At $88 million, there were two competitors left. The final bid was $95 million.
The “buyer’s premium” fee paid to the auction house took the total to $106,482.500. (Hey, you don’t think that Christie’s does this for free, do you? )
Now for the California connection….
“Nude, Green Leaves and Bust,” or “Nu au Plateau de Sculpteur,” is from the collection of Los Angeles philanthropist Frances Lasker Brody, who was the wife of the real estate developer Sidney F. Brody, and who died in November 2009. Their collection, acquired mostly during the 1940s and 1950s, had been in the family’s home, a 2.27-acre estate in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. You can bid on the 11,500-square-foot, five-bedroom, four-staff bedroom house, built in 1950. The home is listed at $24.95 million, according to Coldwell Banker Previews International.
The 1932 painting had been described as “lost” by experts, because it had never been published in color. Picasso‘s muse and mistress, Marie-Thérèse Walter, is the subject of the work. Walter bore Picasso a daughter, and Picasso financially supported them, though he never married her. On 20 October 1977, four years after Picasso’s death, Walter committed suicide by hanging herself in the garage at Juan-les-Pins, South of France.
The previous record for an art work sold at auction was $104,327,006 paid for “L’Homme Qui Marche I, bronze” (Walking Man 1), 1960, by Alberto Giacometti, sold at Sotheby’s to an anonymous bidder in February, 2010. Visit Artsy’s Alberto Giacometti page for biographical information and images of his art!
The previous record for a Picasso was $104,168,000 for “Garçon a la Pipe” (“Boy with Pipe“), 1905, sold in May 2004.
Wikipedia has a list of the most expensive paintings. The most expensive piece of art overall remains Jackson Pollock‘s No. 5, 1948, sold at a private sale for $140 million in 2006.
-Bill at
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