Picasso’s masterpiece ‘Woman with a Watch’ sell for staggering $139.3million at Sotheby’s in New York – the second highest price ever for artist’s work

• Painting depicts French painter Marie-Therese Walter and was sold in minutes

One of Pablo Picasso’s masterpieces, ‘Woman with a Watch,’ was sold at auction Wednesday night for $139.3 million by Sotheby’s in New York, the second-highest price ever achieved for the artist.

In a jam-packed room at the venerable auction house, it only took a few minutes of telephone bidding for the 1932 painting depicting one of the Spanish artist’s companions and muses, the French painter Marie-Therese Walter, to be sold.

‘Femme a la montre’ had been valued at over $120 million before going on the block, according to Sotheby’s.

It was part of the house’s special sale this week of the collection of New York arts patron Emily Fisher Landau, who died this year at age 102.

Julian Dawes, Sotheby’s head of impressionist and modern art, called the Picasso canvas – which hung in Landau’s living room – ‘a masterpiece by every measure.’

Pablo Picasso’s painting ‘Femme a la montre,’ or ‘Woman with a Watch’ is viewed during Sotheby’s fall preview in New York on November 2, 2023

In a jam-packed room at the venerable auction house, it only took a few minutes of telephone bidding for the 1932 painting depicting one of the Spanish artist’s companions and muses, the French painter Marie-Therese Walter (pictured), to be sold

‘Femme a la montre’ had been valued at over $120 million before going on the block, according to Sotheby’s. It was part of the house’s special sale this week of the collection of New York arts patron Emily Fisher Landau (pictured), who died this year at age 102

The world’s most expensive artwork ever sold at auction 

1. ‘Salvator Mundi’ by Leonardo Da Vinci, sold for $450million in 2017

2. ‘Interchange’ by Willem de Kooning, sold for $300million in 2015

4. ‘The Card Players’ by Paul Cézanne, sold for $250million in 2011

5. ‘Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?)’ by Paul Gauguin, sold for $210million in 2014

5. ‘Number 17A’ by Jackson Pollock, sold for $200million in 2015

6. ‘The Standard Bearer’ by Rembrandt, sold for $198million in 2022

7. ‘Shot Sage Blue Marilyn’ by Andy Warhol, sold for $195million in 2022

8. ‘No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red)’ by Mark Rothko, sold for $186million in 2014

9. ‘Wasserschlangen II’ by Gustav Klimt, sold for $183.8million in 2013

10. ‘Pendant portraits of Maerten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit’ by Rembrandt, sold for $180million in 2016

Source: Masterworks 

‘Painted in 1932 – Picasso’s ‘annus mirabilis’ – it is full of joyful, passionate abandon yet at the same time it is utterly considered and resolved,’ he said.

Walter was regarded as Picasso’s ‘golden muse,’ and features in another of his works going under the hammer on Thursday at Christie’s: ‘Femme endormie,’ or ‘Sleeping Woman,’ estimated to sell for $25-$35 million.

She also featured in ‘Femme assise pres d’une fenetre (Marie-Therese),’ or ‘Woman Sitting Near a Window,’ which was sold in 2021 for $103.4 million.

Walter met Picasso in Paris in 1927, when she was just 17 and the Spanish artist was still married to Russian-Ukrainian ballet dancer Olga Khokhlova. The couple had a daughter, who died last year.

Another Picasso from 1932 was sold for $106 million in 2010.

The record sale for one of his works was of ‘The Women of Algiers (Version O),’ a 1955 oil painting which sold for $179.4 million.

When it went under the hammer at Christie’s New York in 2015, it was also the record for any work of art sold at auction.

It was dethroned in November 2017 by the sale of ‘Salvator Mundi’ attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which went for $450 million and holds the record to this day.

Fifty years after his death in 1973 at age 91, Picasso remains one of the most influential artists of the modern world, often hailed as a dynamic and creative genius.

But following the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and assault, his reputation has been tarnished by accusations he exerted a violent hold over the women who shared his life and inspired his art.

Walter was regarded as Picasso’s (pictured) ‘golden muse,’ and features in another of his works going under the hammer on Thursday at Christie’s: ‘Femme endormie,’ or ‘Sleeping Woman,’ estimated to sell for $25-$35 million

‘Flags’ by the 93-year-old Jasper Johns sold for $41 million at auction, while ‘Securing the Last Letter (Boss)’ by painter and photographer Ed Ruscha sold for $39.4 million

Sotheby’s has already netted $406 million in sales from Landau’s collection, which also includes works by Jasper Johns, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol.

‘Flags’ by the 93-year-old Johns sold for $41 million, while ‘Securing the Last Letter (Boss)’ by painter and photographer Ed Ruscha sold for $39.4 million.

Auction houses are enjoying a healthy art and luxury goods market, driven by China and showing no signs of a slowdown, said Kelsey Reed Leonard, head of contemporary art sales at Sotheby’s.

Against a backdrop of wars in Ukraine and Gaza, as well as worldwide inflation, the two titans of the sector – Sotheby’s and Christie’s – will be moving a host of big-ticket lots in the autumn sales, though they may still have a hard time topping last year, when total sales hit a record $16 billion.

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