World's most expensive painting set world record for art auction sales - Picasso painting.
A 1932 painting by Pablo Picasso sold on Tuesday night in New York for 106.5 million dollars, a new world record auction price for a work of art, Christie’s announced.
The painting, Nu au Plateau de Sculpteur (Nude, Green Leaves and Bust), has Marie—Therese Walter, the artist’s mistress in reclining and also in a bust. Picasso included his own profile in the blue background.
The auction price topped the record set in February of 104.3 million dollars for a Giacometti sculpture. That work, titled Walking Man I, sold in London at Sotheby’s auction house.
More than half a dozen people bid on the 1932 canvas, which the Brodys acquired in the 1950s from Picasso's dealers, with the winning bid taken by a Christie's executive via telephone. The final price of $106,482,500 included the auction's house's commission.
"Nude, Green Leaves and Bust" 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 featuring Walter that were unlike anything he had done before.
More paintings from the Brody estate, including works by Matisse, Braque and Giacometti, will be sold by Christie's in the coming weeks.
World's most expensive painting - Picasso painting sets art auction World record 2010 Video
