Portrait of Picasso's Lover Sells for 100 Billion Won at New York Christie's Auction

[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] A portrait painted by Pablo Picasso, the master of modern art, depicting his lover was sold at an auction in New York for over 100 million dollars.

According to AFP on the 14th (local time), at the Christie's auction held that day, Picasso's 1932 work "Woman Sitting by the Window," modeled on Marie-Th?r?se, his lover, was sold for $103.4 million (approximately 116.83 billion KRW).

Christie's stated that the final hammer price was $90 million, but including fees and other charges, the total sale price reached $103.4 million.

The auction started at $45 million. After a fierce competition between two telephone bidders, the price easily surpassed Christie's estimated high of $55 million and soared to $90 million within 19 minutes.

Measuring 146 cm in width and 114 cm in height, this work is regarded as deviating from Picasso's usual style of painting Marie-Th?r?se.

Marie-Th?r?se is typically depicted in Picasso's canvases lying nude with her eyes closed, lost in thought. However, in this painting, she is comfortably seated on a black chair placed beside the window.

Marie-Th?r?se met Picasso, who was 45 years old at the time, when she was 17 in 1927, and soon became his muse and lover, significantly influencing Picasso's works from the late 1920s to the late 1930s.

The year 1932, when the painting was completed, was the period when Picasso was most actively producing works.

AFP reported that with this sale, a total of five of Picasso's works have been sold for record prices exceeding 100 million dollars.

The highest price for a Picasso work is "Les Femmes d'Alger" (Women of Algiers), sold in 2015 for $179.4 million.

In the past two years, the only artwork sold for over 100 million dollars at auction was Claude Monet's "Haystacks," which was sold for $110.7 million at Sotheby's New York auction in 2019.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.