A cubist painting from 1932 in which Pablo Picasso nude portrayed Marie-Therese Walter, “Nude woman lying down”raised $67.54 million at a Sotheby’s modern art auction in New York and it became the most expensive among more than fifty pieces by the artist that went on the market on the same day, such as “El abrazo” (14.11 million), “Musketeer with pipe, bust” (8.48 million) and “Naked Man and Woman” (5.13 million).
The next most sought-after artist was the French Claude Monet with “Le Grand Canal et Santa Maria della Salute”, an impressionist painting sold for 56.62 million dollars, while his floral garden reflected in the water of “Les Arceaux de roses, Giverny” reached 23.30 million.
The auction, without surprises, had some disappointment since certain works were left without a new owner because the bids were too low, as in the case of a portrait of Tamara de Lempicka and a nude of Kees van Dongen.
The auction house, which last Monday closed the most successful sale of a private collection, that of the former Macklowe couple, raised more than 400 million dollars this afternoon and has another great sale of modern and contemporary art scheduled for tomorrow.
