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Pablo Picasso, Femme assise près d'une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse), 1932. Courtesy of Christie’s Images Ltd. The most expensive work sold at auction this year—and the only one to break the $100 million mark—was Pablo Picasso’s 1932 portrait Femme assize près d’une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse), which sold for $103.4 million at a Christie’s New York sale in May. The bright-hued painting of Picasso’s muse Marie-Thérèse Walter bounded past another portrait of a lover, 1941’s Dora Maar au chat—which sold for $95.2 million in 2006—to nab the fifth-highest auction result for the artist. Femme assize had previously come up for auction in 2013 when it sold at Sotheby’s London for $44.7 million; before that, it had sold for $6.8 million in 1997. This latest hammer price represents an increase of more than 1,400% from the painting’s original price at auction and bodes well for the modernist icon’s market.
The Most Expensive Artworks Sold in 2021
Pablo Picasso, Femme assise près d'une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse), 1932. Courtesy of Christie’s Images Ltd. The most expensive work sold at auction this year—and the only one to break the $100 million mark—was Pablo Picasso’s 1932 portrait Femme assize près d’une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse), which sold for $103.4 million at a Christie’s New York sale in May. The bright-hued painting of Picasso’s muse Marie-Thérèse Walter bounded past another portrait of a lover, 1941’s Dora Maar au chat—which sold for $95.2 million in 2006—to nab the fifth-highest auction result for the artist. Femme assize had previously come up for auction in 2013 when it sold at Sotheby’s London for $44.7 million; before that, it had sold for $6.8 million in 1997. This latest hammer price represents an increase of more than 1,400% from the painting’s original price at auction and bodes well for the modernist icon’s market.