Love’S Treasures

Wed., Oct. 28, 1998

When a love affair goes sour, some destroy the evidence. Others save everything: goofy postcards, tiny drawings on matchbooks, a doodle on a restaurant menu. Luckily, Dora Maar, muse to Pablo Picasso for eight stormy years, kept all those things and more - from grand oil paintings to a paper scrap with her lover’s bloodstain. On Tuesday, 15 months after Maar’s lonely death, art-lovers got a chance to buy a piece of that passionate treasure trove. The three-day auction - said to be the largest Picasso collection to go on the block - is expected to bring in up to $70 million. The first evening, focusing on oil paintings and drawings, saw sky-high prices for drawings but lower than expected bids for some of the paintings. The favorite of many, “Dora Maar with Green Nails,” fetched a disappointing $4.1 million. The 1936 tableau shows the muse at the height of her style, her chin resting on green-painted nails and hair braided on top of her head.

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Love’S Treasures

Jesse Tinsley

Jim Meehan

Molly Quinn

Rob Curley

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