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Picasso Painting Sells for $179 Million, Setting New Auction Record; Giacometti Brings $141 Million

This article is more than 8 years old.

Pablo Picasso's  “Les Femmes d'Algers (Version O)” sold for $179.4 million with fees at Christie's in New York, setting a record for a work of art at auction. Exceeding the pre-sale estimate of $140 million, the 1955 painting was inspired by Picasso's enchantment with Eugène Delacroix's "Women of Algiers" and is one of 15 works in the series.

"Les Femmes d'Algers" previously sold at Christie's in 1997—for $31.9 million—as part of the collection of Victor and Sally Ganz. The American collectors were the original owners of the complete Picasso series, purchased directly from the artist's dealer, Daniel Kahnweiler, who insisted that the single buyer should purchase the entire group. Monday's record-breaking bid, which belongs to an anonymous buyer, surpassed Francis Bacon's  "Three Studies of Lucian Freud," which sold to Elaine Wynn for $142.4 million at Christie's in 2013.

Within an hour of the Picasso sale, Christie's hammered down another $100 million sale: Alberto Giacometti's life-size bronze sculpture "L’homme au doigt (Pointing Man)” also set a record, bringing $141.3 million with fees. The Swiss-born Giacometti had held the previous record with the 2010 sale of his sculpture "Walking Man I" for  $104.3 million.

Among the other highlights of the “Looking Forward to the Past” sale—which brought in a total of $706 million for 34 lots—were Claude Monet's "The Houses of Parliament, At Sunset," which fetched $40.5 million, and Mark Rothko's "No. 36 (Black Stripe)," which sold for $40.5 million.

 

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