Picasso's "Women of Algiers" sold at auction Monday at Christie's in New York for $179.3 million, making it the most expensive painting to ever to be sold through the process.
The $179.3 price tag included a 12 percent commission on top of the $160 million winning bid,
noted BBC News. The painting gives Picasso three of the seven most expensive pieces of artwork sold at auction.
Picasso's "Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust" sold for $106.5 million in 2010 while his "Boy with a Pipe" sold for $104.1 million in 2004.
"This is an absolutely blockbuster picture. It's one of the most exciting pictures that we've seen on the market for 10 years," Philip Hoffman, founder of the Fine Art Fund Group, told BBC News. "Yes, there are one or two (Picassos) that could even smash that record but it has a huge wall presence, it's a big show-off picture. For anybody that wants to have a major Picasso, this is it – and $179 million in 10 years' time will probably look inexpensive."
"Les Femmes d'Alger" or "Women of Algiers" soared past Christie's expectations, which had believed the painting would go for $140 million, just under the record of $142 million paid for Francis Bacon's "Three Studies of Lucian Freud" in 2013,
according to CNN Money.
Pablo Picasso, who died in 1973, created the painting in homage to French impressionist Henri Matisse. The painting features nude courtesans and done in his signature cubist style.
Picasso, a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and stage designer, became one of the most influential artists of the century and he created the style Cubism with Georges Braque,
according to Biography.com.
Christie's reported that the Picasso sale generated a lot of attention to its "Looking Forward to the Past" auction overall.
"The exhibition generated a tremendous response from both clients and the public," said Christie's on its
website. "Fifteen thousand visitors have viewed the pre-sale exhibition at Christie’s Rockefeller Center galleries over the last 10 days, and this evening's sale saw participation from a diverse group of clients representing 35 different countries."
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