New York: Pablo Picasso’s ‘Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’)’ sold for $179.4 million, setting a record for any artwork sold at auction.
The price for the painting, sold on Monday at Christie’s in New York, breaks the record held by Francis Bacon’s $142.4 million triptych since November 2013. The auction house had valued the Picasso at $140 million, the highest presale target of any work. The sale price includes commission.
Depicting a group of courtesans, the Picasso painting is based on Eugene Delacroix’s work of a similar title. Picasso explored the theme through a group of 15 paintings, designating the versions from A to O.
At the same evening auction, Alberto Giacometti’s human-scale bronze sculpture of a pointing man fetched $141.3 million in New York, setting an auction record for the Swiss artist.
Conceived in 1947, “L’Homme au Doigt” is a 5-foot-10-inch-tall, knobby stick figure. The work was estimated at $130 million by Christie’s.
The auction house’s special evening sale of 20th century art called ‘Looking Forward to the Past’ is continuing. Bloomberg
