PICASSO'S Nude, Green Leaves and Bust made a new world record for a work of art when it sold at auction in New York on May 4, 2010
Picasso’s “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” made $106,482,500 million at Christie’s in New York on Tuesday evening May 4, a new world record for a work of art sold at auction.
The large-scale painting of Picasso’s mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter was the highlight of a world-class collection assembled by the late Los Angeles art patrons Frances and Sidney Brody.
The sale is a strong indicator of growing confidence in a recovering art market. Nude, Green Leaves and Bust was estimated at between $70 million and $90 million. The previous record of $104.3 million was set in February by Giacometti’s “Walking Man I” at Sotheby’s in London.
There were 69 works on offer in this sale and 56 of them found buyers. The sale total was $335,548,000 or 258,317,960 euros.
Some fund managers who specialise in alternative assets have predicted that art prices will rise by about 40 per cent in the next two years.