Picassos Aplenty Highlight Fall Art Auctions Sotheby’s, Christie’s Selling 27 Picassos
The art world is talking Picasso, thinking Picasso and dreaming Picasso, from his cubist still lifes to portraits of the women he loved.
A total of $350 million worth of Impressionist, modern and contemporary art is going on the block during the two-week round of fall sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s.
“We have very, very good material coming up for sale this fall,” said Franck Giraud, who runs Christie’s Impressionist and modern painting department in New York.
Works by Pablo Picasso carry some of the highest price tags, and there are a lot of them on the block. Together, the two auction houses are selling 27 Picassos - with a total value of at least $70 million - at their main evening sales of Impressionist and modern art on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Picassos are expected to account for about a third of the sale totals.
The high quality of the art reflects the gradual upturn in the market since its collapse in fall 1990, as evidence by the dazzling price of $29.2 million paid for a Picasso portrait last spring.
The Picasso highlight at Christie’s is “The Mirror,” from 1932, an abstract portrait in sensuously curving lines of the artist’s mistress, Marie-Therese Walter. It’s estimated at $10 million to $15 million.
The seller, reportedly Japanese collector Shigeki Kameyama, bought it for $26.4 million at Sotheby’s in 1989.
A 1905 painting of a circus performer from Picasso’s Rose Period is valued at $10 million. Picasso’s highly analytical cubist still life, “The Independent,” from 1911, is estimated at $5 million to $7 million.
Christie’s has not identified the seller of the still life - named for the newspaper depicted in it - but reportedly it was collected by Jacques Koerfer, a German businessman who lived in Switzerland.
At Sotheby’s, the leading Picasso is “Seated Woman,” from 1938, a harshly distorted portrait of Dora Maar, another one of the artist’s mistresses. It’s expected to sell for $7 million to $9 million.
A cubist still life from 1914 of a guitar, bottle of Bass, grapes, pipe, glass and newspaper is estimated at $5 million to $7 million.
Alexander Apsis, head of Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern art, said the plethora of Picassos was a delightful coincidence.
Other highlights of the Impressionist and modern sales include a Henri Matisse cutout, from 1951, estimated at $7 million to $10 million, and a 1916 portrait by Amedeo Modigliani, estimated at $6 million to $8 million, both at Christie’s.