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Picasso's portrait of a young lover to sell for $55 million at auction

April 5, 2021. Summarized by summa-bot.

Compression ratio: 52.5%. 1 min read.

Pablo Picasso's 1932 "Femme assise près d'une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse)" ("Woman Sitting Near a Window") will be offered in Christie's newly rebranded 20th Century Art Evening Sale in New York on May 11, with an estimate of $55 million.

Pablo Picasso's 1932 "Femme Assise Près d'une Fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse)" ("Woman Sitting Near a Window"), a portrait of his teenage lover and "golden muse" from a critical point in his career, will be offered in Christie's newly rebranded 20th Century Art Evening Sale in New York on May 11, with an estimate of $55 million.

"1932 was a make-or-break year for Picasso," said Vanessa Fusco, the co-head of the 20th Century Sale.

But while many of the paintings from this period depict a nude woman lying in repose, "Femme Assise Près d'une Fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse)" shows a figure that is alert and present.

"Femme Assise Près d'une Fenêtre" last came to auction in February 2013, when it sold for £28. 6 million ($44. 8 million, including fees) to the third party guarantor at Sotheby's London.

At its first appearance at auction, at Christie's New York in 1997, it sold for $7. 5 million (including fees).

The portrait will now anchor the auction house's new 20th Century Art Evening Sale, which replaces the Impressionist and Modern Art category and includes works from roughly the 1870s to the 1980s.

Fusco said the new format was introduced out of an "organic need to redefine the way auctions were held and to respond to the way collectors are collecting. "

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