A rare Picasso print has set an auction record at Sotheby’s in New York.
Picasso’s Portrait de jeune fille, d’après Cranach le jeune (B. 859; BA. 1053), a linoleum cut print dating from 1958, exceeded its top estimate of $600,000 to sell for $694,000 – a record for the image at auction.
There were also strong sales for Picasso’s Françoise Sur Fond Gris (B. 681; M. 195), which sold for $162,500 and Grande Tête de Jacqueline au Chapeau (B. 1077; BAER 1317), which achieved $150,000, both easily surpassing their estimates.
Pop art prints were also amongst the biggest-sellers of the evening. Roy Lichtenstein’s Nude with Blue Hair (C. 286) achieved the second-highest price of the sale when it sold for $454,000, followed by a portfolio of four Jean-Michel Basquiat prints which sold for $298,000, almost doubling their high estimate.
Two major portfolios by Andy Warhol also drew six-figure sums, with the 10-print series Cowboys and Indians selling for $322,000 and Details of Renaissance Paintings, featuring four images of Botticelli’s Birth Of Venus, bringing $262,000.
In total the auction achieved a result of $8,096,188, with a strong sell-through rate of 85.9% by lot.
"We were thrilled with the results of this season’s sale, which demonstrated the continuing interest by both emerging and established collectors in the Prints and Multiples category," said Mary Bartow, Head of Sotheby’s Prints Department in New York.
"While there was competitive, international bidding for works across genres spanning the late 19th Century to today, works by Picasso and Pop Art examples from masters such as Warhol and Lichtenstein performed particularly well, selling for multiples of their estimates and achieving new benchmark prices."
