As recently reported by the New York Times, the spring art auction season continues in full swing in New York this time at Christie's where Pablo Picasso's 1955 painting entitled "Les Femmes d'Alger (Version 'O')" fetched $179.4 million (including fees) at the auction house's "Looking Forward to the Past" sale of artworks from the 20th century yesterday evening.
According to Christie's, the winning bid surpassed the auction house's estimate of $140 million and was the highest on record for an artwork sold at auction. The previous record setting auction high also occurred at Christie's and included Francis Bacon's "Three Studies of Lucian Freud" paid by Elaine Wynn, co-founder of the Wynn casino empire, in November 2013.
Shortly after the winning bid on the Picasso, Alberto Giacometti's iconic 1947-51 bronze sculpture entitled "L'homme au doigt (Pointing Man)" sold for $141.3 million (including fees), which represented an auction high for any sculpture.
This was the first time that two artworks with estimates of over $120 million each were offered for sale at the same auction.
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