Picasso Sold For $44 Million

Sydney Morning Herald

Wednesday November 30, 1988

Source: The New York Times

NEW YORK, Tuesday: Picasso's Acrobat and Young Harlequin, a 1905 gouache on board from the artist's rose period depicting a pair of sad-eyed circus performers, was sold at Christie's in London yesterday for $US38.4 million($A43.9 million), a record at auction for a 20th-century artwork and the third-highest price ever paid for a painting.

The Associated Press reported that a Japanese department store bought the painting.

Mitsukoshi Department Store, a leading importer of art, had not yet decided on specific plans for the display or sale of the painting, the report said.

In March last year, Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers, painted in 1889, was sold for $US39.9 million at Christie's in London to Yasuda Fire and Marine Insurance Co, a Japanese company.

"The blue period and rose period paintings are worshipped in Japan," said Mr James Roundell, who heads Christie's Impressionist and modern art department. "That's because they have a human quality and human emotions that appeal in Japan. It was a battle, and we saw several Japanese bidding for this painting."

The auction continued the surge in prices for 20th-century art that gained momentum three weeks ago in New York when prices for Picasso paintings reached double-digit figures in the millions for the first time.

Before this round of sales, the record for a Picasso at auction was $US7.6 million, the price paid a year ago at Sotheby's in London for Memory of Le Havre. Then, on November 10, Picasso's Birdcage from 1923 was sold at Sotheby's in New York for $US15.4 million. On November 14, Picasso's Motherhood, from 1901, was auctioned at Christie's in New York for $US24.8 million.

The two paintings that brought higher prices at auction are both by Van Gogh, Sunflowers, and his Irises which was sold for $US53.9 million at Sotheby's in New York a year ago.

The unidentified owner who consigned Picasso's circus painting is believed to be an heir of Roger Janssen, a Brussels banker. Janssen, the last owner named in Christie's provenance, acquired this Picasso in Switzerland after it was taken from a museum in Elberfeld, Germany, in 1937 and confiscated by the Nazis, who called it "decadent art". The work was sent to Switzerland and was sold at auction in Lucerne in 1939 for $US18,020.