Games are made.
Eleven works by Pablo Picasso belonging to the American hotel-casino group MGM Resorts, including a portrait of his French muse Marie-Thérèse Walter, brought in 108.87 million dollars (93.5 million euros) during a auction organized on Saturday by Sotheby's at the famous Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas known for its art collection.
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The jewel of this sale, organized two days before the 140th anniversary of the birth of the Spanish painter, was the painting called the
Woman with the Red-Orange Beret
, one of the last portraits of Marie-Thérèse Walter in a series started by the artist in 1935. Muse and lover of Picasso from 1927, when she was 17 years old, she remained his mistress until the period of the Second World War.
“The crowning achievement of one of Picasso's most inspired and productive periods
,
”
according to Sotheby's, the
Woman with the Red-Orange Beret
was painted in January 1938.
The
Woman with the Red-Orange Beret
, painted by Pablo Picasso in 1938. One of the last portraits of Marie-Thérèse Walter, the painting was sold for $ 40.47 million at the sale organized by Sotheby's in Las Vegas, on October 23. .
Sotheby's
At the time of its creation, the avant-garde artist had already maintained - for three years - a relationship with the photographer Dora Maar, whom he had met the year of the pregnancy of Marie-Thérèse Walter, who gave birth in 1935. of Picasso's daughter, Maya.
Thirty years after her separation from the painter, Marie-Thérèse Walter committed suicide in 1977, four years after the death of the artist whom she had once inspired so much.
Estimated at between $ 20 million and $ 30 million, the painting sold for $ 40.47 million on Saturday.
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Ceramics and war paintings
Two other iconic portraits executed by the painter during the last years of his life were sold at a high price.
The
Man and Child
(1969) traded for $ 24.39 million, while his
Bust of a Man
(1969) soared for $ 9.45 million, a little below its original estimate of $ 10. millions.
The two canvases were presented by the painter in his 1970 exhibition at the Palais des Papes in Avignon.
Other works sold during this auction included ceramics, drawings and several still lifes.
Respectively sold for 16.6 and 8.3 million dollars, his
Still life with a basket of fruits and flowers
(1942) and his
Still life with flowers and a fruit bowl
(1943) represent two canvases painted by Pablo Picasso during the Second World War. global.
"I did not paint the war, because I am not that kind of painter who leaves, like a photographer, in search of something to portray,"
said the artist, according to the catalog. from Sotheby's.
But I have no doubt that the war is very present in the paintings that I have painted. ”
