Art In Context: What It Means That Picasso’s ‘Femme a la Montre’ Sold For $139 Million

Under nan hammer and nan crisp oculus of Sotheby's inimitable auction-man Oliver Barker, nan first 31-lot load of nan well-touted Emily Fisher Landau postulation did a adjacent occupation buttressing nan New York expansive dame's famously forward-thinking art-world estimation connected nan evening of November 8 connected York Avenue. Of Fisher Landau's genuinely stellar lots, nan prima of nan event, Lot 10, Picasso's 1932 image of mistress and muse Marie-Thérèse Walter, 'Femme a la Montre' pulled successful a respectable $121 million, conscionable a cardinal much than Sotheby's ain exacting estimate. Including nan Sotheby's buyer's and overhead premiums, nan last waste value was $139 cardinal and change.

It was nan astir costly creation activity sold to day successful 2023 and represents nan second-highest value for a Picasso. In general, bully for Picasso, and bully for nan esteemed Ms. Fisher Landau, some of those formidable 20th-centurians stood up to nan task of gathering nan 21st period pinch their goods.

But because nan world is specified a shaky place, and seemingly shakier now that we person 2 moving crushed wars successful Eastern Europe and successful nan ever-combustible Middle East, it remains for america to find what that increment of $19 cardinal complete nan Sotheby's estimate represents astir nan wellness aliases nan ailments of of nan marketplace for nan classical modern correct this minute.

The truth that nan buyer's and overhead premiums were responsible for adjacent to 95% of nan quality betwixt nan waste value and nan location estimate is interesting. The action connected nan auction level toward a hammer value faltered alternatively than took formation arsenic nan hammer value approached nan location estimate. In nan event, location was a little infinitesimal of quiet arsenic nan hammer value slow ratcheted up toward nan $120 cardinal "ceiling." Sotheby's ultra-crisp Oliver Barker sensed that and slowed his ordinarily agleam trading slightly, to fto nan money being tossed successful nan aerial settee successful nan minds of its (at that moment) 3 main bidders. And nan mobility is, why that, for this spectacular canvas from this globally-recognized tip-of-the-art-world owner?

As nan second-highest value paid to day for a Picasso, it surely cannot beryllium called a steal, but arsenic a marketplace value and indicator, it was much than adjacent to nan buyer. What nan purchaser won astatine that last hammer price, nan coating seems a bargain — by kindness of spot successful nan oeuvre, sitter, sterling provenance, and not least, nan highly detailed, individual Picasso-family communicative bolted to that circumstantial canvas. Here's hoping this very individual masterpiece is allowed to stay successful nan nationalist realm.