Pablo Picasso Portrait of Dora Maar brings $95,216,000 at Sotheby's This is the second highest price ever paid for a painting at auction. EVENING SALE OF IMPRESSIONIST AND MODERN ART TOTALS
$207.6 MILLION – SOTHEBY’S HIGHEST TOTAL SINCE SPRING 1990.
News-Antique.com - Nov 30,-0001 - Last night, in a packed salesroom, extended applause broke out when Picasso's Dora Maar au chat sold for an exceptional $95,216,000 - the second highest price ever paid for a painting at auction. At least four bidders on the telephone competed with a bidder in the room who prevailed after a lengthy battle. The entire sale was a triumph totaling $207.6 million, Sotheby's highest total since spring 1990.
Auction records were set for Henri Matisse, when his Nu couché vu de dos sold for $18.5 million, and Dame Barbara Hepworth, whose Three Obliques (Walk-In) sold for $1.1 million.
New York, NY - May 3, 2006: Tonight at Sotheby’s, in a packed salesroom, Pablo Picasso’s Dora Maar au chat, one of the artist’s most spectacular depictions of his lover and artistic companion, sold to an anonymous buyer for an exceptional $95,216,000, making it the second most expensive painting ever sold at auction.1 At least four bidders on the telephone competed with a bidder in the room who prevailed after a lengthy and spirited battle. The portrait was included in a sale of Impressionist and Modern Art which brought $207,564,800, the highest total for a sale in this category at Sotheby’s since May 1990 (est. $137.2/190.8 million*).
The evening also featured a spectacular painting from Henri Matisse’s celebrated Nice period – Nu couché vu de dos - which sold for $18,496,000, a record for the artist at auction. An auction record was also established for
Dame Barbara Hepworth, whose monumental sculpture, Three Obliques (Walk-In), sold for $1,128,000. The sale was 96.9% sold by value and 87.3% sold by lot, with 27 lots, nearly half of the 55 offered, selling for more than $1 million.
“The outstanding price achieved tonight by Picasso’s portrait of Dora Maar is a reflection of this quality-driven market,” commented David Norman, a Chairman of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Department Worldwide. “Works of this caliber are so remarkably rare that we could wait another generation before we see such a great Picasso appear at auction, “There is a diverse group of collectors supporting the market – all industries, all nationalities, with immense purchasing power. We saw a great depth of bidding on the majority of the works offered tonight. The strength of the sale did not rest upon one single collection; rather it was made up of individual works from individual collections.”
In addition to Dora Maar au chat, competition was particularly fierce for other works by Picasso. Arlequin au baton, from 1969, one of the finest latter-period works by the artist to appear at auction in recent memory sold for $10,096,000; his Femme assise dans un fauteuil, consigned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, sold for $6,736,000; and his Sylvette of 1954 made $4,608,000.
As many as six bidders competed for one of André Derain’s most accomplished Fauvist landscapes, Paysage à l’Estaque, driving the final price to $6,848,000, surpassing the high estimate of $5 million. Also by Derain was Musique, a lyrical watercolour, which sold for $598,400,
