It is so absurd, but then, great novelists have been telling us in "Candide", "The Red Badge of Courage" and "The World According to Garp" that Real Life is always weirder than fiction if you think about it
US & Canada
Picasso's Women of Algiers smashes auction record
- 1 hour ago
- US & Canada
TO SEE VIDEO:
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-32700575
Picasso's Women of Algiers has become the most expensive painting to sell at auction, going for $179.3m (£115m) at Christie's in New York.
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-32700575
Picasso's Women of Algiers has become the most expensive painting to sell at auction, going for $179.3m (£115m) at Christie's in New York.
Eleven minutes of prolonged bidding from telephone buyers preceded the final sale - for much more than its pre-sale estimate of $140m.
The previous world record for a painting sold at auction was $142.4m, for British painter Francis Bacon's Three Studies of Lucian Freud.
That sold at Christie's in 2013.
The Picasso oil painting is a vibrant depiction of nude and semi-nude women, and is part of a 15-work series the Spanish artist created in 1954-55 designated with the letters A to O.
The final price of $179,365,000 includes Christie's commission of just over 12%.
There could be more record-breaking in the same Christie's sale on Monday.
Alberto Giacometti's life-size sculpture Pointing Man is tipped to set a record as the most expensive sculpture sold at auction.
Experts believe the investment value of art is behind the high prices.
"I don't really see an end to it, unless interest rates drop sharply, which I don't see happening in the near future," said Manhattan dealer Richard Feigen.
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