That is the other question they all want to know. How much? Art reduced to a commodity like pork bellies or snake oil trading certificates. But in the case of Picasso’s fabulous painting Nude, Green Leaves & Bust, the ‘how much’ turned out to be rather more than anyone expected $106.5 million in fact. The painting depicts Picasso’s teenage mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter recumbent amongst shamrock foliage. It is a nice painting, but if you had a choice between that and a new hospital wing… I guess it all depends if you are in the need of a new hospital wing, or the kind of living room artwork that will send your household insurance premiums stratospheric (You could always sell the picture and move into your new hospital…)
Interestingly the painting was bought as recently as 1951 for the bargain price of $20,000 By advertising heiress Frances Lasker Brody and her husband Sidney. Ms Brody’s impressive collection of Modern Art, which includes many important works by Picasso, Matisse and others has recently been gifted to the Huntington Library in Los Angeles. Watch this space for show dates.
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