It also became the first painting to sell for more than $100 million, outstripping by $21.7 million the previous world record set in 1990 for Vincent van Gogh's "Portrait of Dr. Gachet." Sotheby's wouldn't name the buyer, who placed bids through Warren Weitman Jr., the auctioneer's chairman of North and South America.
The painting, depicting a young man in a blue workers suit holding a small black pipe, was the star of an auction of 34 paintings collected by financier and publisher John Hay Whitney, who died in 1982 at age 77, and his wife, Betsey Cushing Whitney, who died at age 89 in 1998. The total for the evening was $189.9 million, far exceeding the $131 million to $157.6 million estimate anticipated by Sotheby's.
"It's an immensely high price, but I'm not surprised," said Leslie Waddington, owner of London's Waddington Galleries. "There's a lot of money around."
The work was painted during Picasso's rose period, which followed the artist's famous blue period. In 1905, he was living in Montmartre, Paris, where he met the subject of the painting, Petit Louis, an adolescent who frequented the studios of several painters and may have been an apprentice to Picasso.
Mrs. Whitney donated the Picasso and other artworks, personal possessions, and her home on a 400-acre estate in Manhasset, New York, to the Greentree Foundation when she died. The foundation sold the works to help pay for renovations of the estate, which now hosts international meetings to promote peace, said Richard Schaeffer, president of the foundation.
Following the sale, Schaeffer said in a statement, "the foundation is delighted with tonight's results. The results are a great tribute to Mr. and Mrs. Whitney."
Before the sale, the highest price ever paid at auction for a Picasso at auction was $55 million. The painting was "Femme aux Bras Crois," and it sold at Christie's in New York in November 2000. Of the ten most expensive paintings ever sold at auction before Wednesday, four were Picassos.
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