Pablo Picasso’s 1932 lilac-hued oil painting of his young mistress, Marie-Therese Walter, sold for a record $106.5 million in New York last night, hours after the U.S. stock market had its biggest drop since February. “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust,” featuring the artist’s profile hovering over a reclining Walter and against a blue backdrop with philodendron leaves, is the most paid for an artwork at auction. It went to an unidentified phone buyer who beat seven rivals after a nine-minute bidding war. The price exceeds host Christie’s International’s own presale estimate of between $70 million to $90 million for the painting. “Masterpieces are recession proof,” said New York dealer Guy Bennett, in an interview. Picasso’s paintings of Walter are some of his most-coveted because of their size and expressiveness, among other qualities. The record price for this painting is a positive start to the city’s spring art auctions over the next two weeks that may fetch a combined $1.2 billion. The five-foot tall painting exceeded the previous record for artwork at auction: $104.2 million set at Sotheby’s in New York in 2004, for a 1905 Picasso painting, “Garcon a la Pipe.” And it beat the 65 million pounds, or $103.4 million, for Giacometti’s “Walking Man I” set in February in London. “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” came from the estate of Los Angeles philanthropist Frances Brody, who died last year at the age of 93. She bought it in 1950 for $17,000 at New York’s Paul Rosenberg and Co., according to Conor Jordan, head of Christie’s Impressionist and modern art department in New York. Christie’s auction yesterday tallied $335.5 million, the company’s biggest sale since November 2007. The 69 lots on offer had been estimated to fetch $262.8 million to $368.3 million. All 27 lots from the Brody estate found buyers, totaling $224.2 million. A portion of the proceeds go to the non-profit Huntington of San Marino, California, which has a library, art collection and botanical gardens.
