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SOTHEBY'S

Picasso’s morose masterpiece with a hidden secret to go up for auction

A rare Pablo Picasso painting from the collection of US tycoon Bill Koch that will be sold on November 5th was shown in London for the first time on Friday.

Published: 9 October 2015 14:39 CEST
Picasso's morose masterpiece with a hidden secret to go up for auction
Photo: AFP

The painting by the Spanish artist depicts a morose-looking nude cabaret singer with red lips and brown curly hair, contrasting with her unhealthy pale skin.

Conservation work uncovered hidden under the lining on the reverse of the painting a portrait of Picasso's anarchist friend and art dealer Pere Manach.

 

“The whimsical and wicked rendering depicts the dealer wearing an exotic headdress, with his head on a female body in a dancer's leap,” Sotheby's said in a statement.

“La Gommeuse” is estimated at some $60 million (€53 million) and is due to be auctioned in New York, where it will be put on display from October 30th.

The painting is a rare one from the artist's Blue Period that is not in a museum.

It was painted in 1901 by a 19-year-old Picasso – a year after he arrived in Paris.

Koch, brother of conservative mega-donors Charles and David Koch, bought the painting in 1984.

Picasso's masterpiece “Les Femmes d'Alger” became the most expensive painting ever sold at auction when it went for $179.36 million at Christie's in New York in May.

The previous record had been held by Francis Bacon's “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” which sold for $142.4 million at Christie's in New York in 2013.

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PICASSO

Picasso murals removed from Oslo building damaged by Breivik

Despite protests, the removal of two murals designed by Pablo Picasso began on Monday from an Oslo government building damaged in right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik's 2011 attack, a project manager said.

Published: 27 July 2020 14:58 CEST
Picasso murals removed from Oslo building damaged by Breivik
The mural “The Fishermen” by Pablo Picasso and the Norwegian artist Carl Nesja is scaffolded at the Y-block in the government quarter in Oslo on July 27th. Photo: AFP

The “Y Block”, a government building complex named for its shape, is scheduled to be demolished due to damage from explosives that Breivik set before going on a shooting rampage, killing a combined 77 people.

On its grey cement walls are two drawings by Picasso that were sandblasted by Norwegian artist Carl Nesjar, who collaborated with the Spanish master painter.

On the facade facing the street, “The Fishermen” depicts three men hauling their oversized catch onto their boat. In the lobby, “The Seagull” shows the bird, its wings spread wide, devouring a fish.

 

On Monday, the works, weighing 250 and 60 tonnes respectively, were enclosed in massive metal supports to be transported away and stored nearby, according to Statsbygg, the public agency in charge of overseeing the demolition.

“The operation is very slow” and should be completed by Thursday or Friday, site manager Pal Weiby told AFP.

The plan is to integrate the works into a new government building scheduled for completion in 2025.

Opponents of the project, both in Norway and abroad, have been mobilising in recent years to save the building, calling for it to be renovated and preserved as has been planned for its neighbour, “Block H”.

“Block H” was home to the prime minister's offices until Breivik blew up a van loaded with 950 kilogrammes (2,100 pounds) of explosives at its base, before he went on to carry out a mass shooting on the island of Utoya.

In addition to hoping to preserve an architectural work typical of the 1960s, opponents of the destruction invoke a symbolic argument: that the government buildings should remain standing even though the right-wing extremist tried to tear them down.

READ ALSO: New York's MoMA calls for Norway to save Picasso building

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