One of Pablo Picasso's masterpieces, "Woman with a Clock", was sold at auction for $139.3 million at Sotheby's in New York.
The 1932 painting depicts one of the Spanish artist's companions and muses, the French painter Marie-Therese Walter, and was valued at more than $120 million before it sold, according to Sotheby's.
«What is surprising is its majesty, its grace, its maturity. She is still a very young woman, as she sits in this incredible chair. It's almost a throne. I have the impression of rediscovering the Madonnas of Renaissance paintings, it has this real air", explains Lisa Dennison, president of Sotheby's for America.
«1932 is perhaps Picasso's most important year, among many, many decades of great works - he adds - But of those sold at auction, five of the ten highest prices date back to the 1930s and three to 1932. So it is obviously something the market hadn't seen since the 1960s and was widely awaited and coveted by many people."
It is one of three paintings by Picasso that depict a clock, a symbol of vanity, to evoke the passage of time. The artist himself loved watches and collected them. The auction was surpassed only by "Women of Algiers" sold for 179.4 million dollars in 2015, the Picasso with the highest valuation ever achieved.
(Unioneonline/D)
