A Pablo Picasso painting of his mistress may sell for as much as 18 million pounds ($28.6 million) at Sotheby’s in London next month as auction houses feed collectors’ hunger for trophy works of 20th-century art.
ARTKABINETT social network for fine art collectors always appreciates when a mistress can make some money.
“La Lecture,” showing Picasso’s blonde muse Marie-Therese Walter asleep in a chair with a book on her lap, will be offered in Sotheby’s Feb. 8 sale of Impressionist and modern art, the New York-based company said in an e-mailed statement.
The work dates from 1932, the same year as the Picasso’s Walter-inspired “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust,” which fetched $106.5 million -- a record for any work of art at auction -- at Christie’s International in New York in May last year.
It was one of several museum-quality works by big-name 20th-century artists that international bidders pushed to new highs in 2010.
“There are buyers in the market who specifically want Marie-Therese Picassos,” Helena Newman, Sotheby’s European chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art, said in an interview. “They’re iconic paintings. She brings an amazing languorous sensuality to his work.”
The panel painting, entered by an American collector, has not been seen at auction since 1996, where it failed to sell against a low estimate of $6 million at Christie’s New York.
It is one of two works in the 42-lot auction that has been guaranteed a minimum price through a third-party “irrevocable bid.” The low estimate is 12 million pounds, said Sotheby’s.
The 45-year-old Picasso met Walter (photo at right) by chance in 1927 when she was leaving the Paris subway.
“He simply took me by the arm and said: ‘I am Picasso! You and I are going to do great things together,’” said Walter in an exhibition catalog. Walter was 17 at the time.
She remained the mistress of the artist, who was married to Olga Khokhlova, from 1927 to about 1935.
