Pablo Picasso’s 1932 painting sells for more than $139 million

Pablo Picassos 1932 painting Femme la montre sold for more than $139 million on Wednesday, Nov. 8, at a Sothebys New York auction, making it the most valuable work of art sold globally at an auction this year. The work is a standout of New York Citys fall art auction season. It was auctioned as part of an estimated $400 million sale of the collection of late philanthropist Emily Fisher Landau. The nine-digit price made it the second most-expensive Picasso painting to sell at auction, behind Les femmes d'Alger (Version 'O'), which fetched $179.3 million, including a buyers premium, at Christies in 2015. Femme la montre, which translates from French to Woman with a Watch, is a portrait of the artists lover Marie-Thrse Walter seated in a throne-like chair against a blue background. The titular wristwatch is a motif also seen in artwork Picasso made of his wife, Russian-Ukrainian ballerina Olga Khokhlova. Walter was 17 years old when she met the 45-year-old Picasso in Paris, and the two later entered into a secret relationship while he was still married to Khokhlova. Walter became his subject for a number of artworks, including the 1932 painting "Femme nue couche," which sold for $67.5 million at auction in 2022. Fisher Landau bought the Femme la montre painting from New Yorks Pace Gallery in 1968 and kept it above the mantle in her Manhattan apartment, according to Sothebys. An anonymous buyer beat out two other bidders for the painting on Wednesday,  Nov. 8, 2023.The post Pablo Picassos 1932 painting sells for more than $139 million appeared first on Linda Ikeji Blog.