Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour was announced at auction where Blue Ivy stole the show, selling a $4.1 million estate that includes a $1.65 million art collection.
RENO, Nev. (AP) — A $1.65 million collection of art by Pablo Picasso, Renato Guttmann, and Georgia O’Keeffe was sold at a estate auction Wednesday for $4.1 million, the largest ever at auction of Picasso’s works.
The Renaissance Rodeo art sale of works by the late master and his associates was overseen by the Picasso Museum, which held the collection at the auction house.
The Picasso Museum’s director, James Johnson, said the sale of Picasso art has become increasingly rare, but there was enough interest in his collection to justify the sale.
“This is one of the most important collections in the world, and we’re very proud that we were able to get it to market so that it could benefit the public,” he said.
The most expensive piece of Picasso’s art sold was a 1929 painting called A Ballerina and Her Dance of the Seven Veils: Poses and a Song, which was a collection of 12 Picasso paintings. Auctioneer David Llewellyn said it was sold at an undisclosed number, but that it did not have a price at the time.
The Picasso collection would bring the value of the work to at least $4.2 million.
The sale was also the subject of a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by the estates of two children, but the case was settled out of court.
The other major portion of the sale of the works, the Renato Guttmann art collection, did not get as much attention at auction.
The sale included three paintings by Renato Guttmann, but it was estimated by the auctioneer David Llewellyn that the painting that drew the most interest was titled “A Ballerina at the Village Ball” for $2.9 million.
Llewellyn said he chose that painting because it is one of Guttmann’s best-known works and because the auction house was able to find the right bidding terms to bring the final