"Reading" Picasso was sold at Sotheby’s for 25.2 million pounds Automatic translate

This time, at the evening auction of the Impressionism and Modernism department at Sotheby’s, the main attraction was the portrait of Maria Theresa Walter by Pablo Picasso. This is the painting “Reading” (“La Lecture”) of 1932, which was sold to the applause of the participants for 25,241,250 pounds or more than $ 40.5 million *. This is almost twice the starting estimate (approximately £ 12 - 18 million / $ 18.5-27.8 million). After lively trading among seven interested parties (they were conducted in the hall and by telephone), which lasted 6 minutes, the work was sold to an anonymous buyer who made a bid by telephone. In total, during the auction, works of art were sold for £ 68,834,400 or about $ 111 million, which is better than the preliminary estimate (55,630 thousand pounds or $ 79,250 thousand **), sales at a price of 84.5%. The average lot price at this evening auction amounted to 2.15 million pounds (3.5 million dollars).

Helena Newman, chairman of the European Department of Impressionism and Modernism at Sotheby’s shared her impressions: “We were stunned at the price that Picasso’s La Lecture went under the hammer - an exceptional work of one of the artist’s most significant periods. This picture attracted particular interest of buyers from around the world before the auction, which could be judged by the intensity of the evening auction: seven buyers brought the price to the final figure of 25.2 million pounds. In general, interested persons from 11 countries participated in the bidding, there were bids from Asia, Russia, the USA and Europe. ”

Melanie Clore, chairman of Sotheby’s European division, says they intend to continue selling this week, with particular emphasis on Thursday evening sales, where the components of the Looking Closely: A Private Collection project will be on display. which has already attracted the interest of collectors from around the world.

The project includes 60 lots, the total cost of which, according to preliminary estimates, exceeds 40 million pounds. The pearls of the collection are “Portrait de Paul Eluard” by Salvador Dali (£ 3.5-5 million) and a triptych dedicated to Lucian Freud, painted by Francis Bacon (£ 7-9 million).

"Reading" by Pablo Picasso

Bidding returned "Reading" to Europe, where the picture has not been since its writing in 1932. This is one of the artist’s landmark works, on which he portrayed his young lover Maria-Teresa Walter. The couple’s relationship was kept secret for many years, due to the fact that Picasso was still married to Olga Khokhlova (a Russian dancer, whom he met during a trip with Diaghilev, and also because of the age of Maria Teresa, who at that time was barely turned 17. Before the start of the period, which, in fact, opens with this picture, Maria Theresa met in Picasso’s works only in details - her features are visible only against the background of his paintings, but by the end of 1931 Picasso could no longer suppress his creative impulse, summoned by his muse, and beyond a short period from Christmas to New 1932, Maria Theresa first appeared on the canvas in a completely recognizable manner.

Other notable sales

Another attraction of the auction was one of the most important works of Marino Marini, which has ever been put up for sale: his monumental sculpture of a horse rider (L’idea del cavaliere) went under the hammer for £ 4,185,250 or $ 6,750,390. Famous sculpture by Henry Moore (Henry Moore) "Reclining Connected Forms" reached the bar of 2 million pounds (about 3 million dollars).

“Raddampfer and Landungsstag” (1912, oil on canvas) Lionel Feininger sold almost twice as much as the initial estimate - for £ 3,177,250 or $ 5,124,587 after brisk trading among five collectors, one of which is the winner in the room. This rare painting shows the artist’s ingenuity at the time of his fascination with the German expressionist movement Die Brücke. The picture has not appeared at auctions since 1949.

One of the first serious landscapes by Claude Monet, “Argenteuil Afternoon” (Claude Monet - Argenteuil, Fin d’Après-Midi, 1872), painted by him in a new house near Paris, was sold for £ 3,401,250 or $ 5,485,876

A new auction record was reached at the evening auction thanks to the sale of the painting “Director of the School” (Le Maître d’École; gouache on paper) by surrealist artist René Magritte for £ 2,505,250 or $ 4,040,718. The gouache depicts the characteristic of Magritte a man in a bowler hat. The final cost almost doubled the amount of preliminary estimates and set a new record for paintings on paper.

A record price was also reached for Natura Morta, which was sold for £ 1,385,250 / $ 2,234,270.

• Sales by the number of lots: 76.2%
• Sales by value: 84.5%
• Of the proposed 42 lots, 32 were sold
• More than 93% of lots sold at evening auction went for a price that exceeds the preliminary estimate
• Average lot price: £ 2.15 million / $ 3.5 million.
• 15 works were sold for more than a million pounds, 28 works for an amount exceeding a million dollars

* Please note that Sotheby’s uses the average market exchange rate for the pound sterling, which currently stands at 1GBP = 1.61 USD

** Preliminary valuation does not include buyer’s premium

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