Sotheby's and MGM Resorts to Auction Off Picasso Works in Las Vegas
By Lucy JungBy Lucy Jung|August 17, 2021|culture, Art,
Pablo Picasso: Nature Morte au Panier de Fruits et Aux Fleurs
If you've ever wanted to own a Picasso now may be your chance.
Sotheby's and MGM Resorts Fine Arts Collection are teaming up to auction off 11 pieces of the artist's work. The event will take place on on Oct. 23, two days before the 140th birthday celebration of Picasso.
The works at the auction could earn over $100 million, according to CNN.
For anyone who has visited the restaurant Picasso located at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, the Michelin-star establishment serves not only sophisticated delicacies, but housed the masterpieces from the revered artist.
These 11 pieces are a part of the MGM Resorts’ art collection. There are works on papers, including a painting titled "Femme au béret rouge-orange” of the model Marie-Thérèse Walter, with whom Picasso was involved in an affair.
Pablo Picasso: Femme au Beret Rouge Orange
Another piece titled the "Nature morte au panier de fruits et aux fleurs," from 1942 , painted by the artist “with a really heavy application of paint, almost reminiscent of Van Gogh," according to Sotheby's Brooke Lampley, is also part of the collection.
There will also be an exhibition selectively curated by Sotheby’s to complement the auction, from October 21-24. This will feature not Picasso’s works but other luxury objects such as jewelry, automobiles, and fashion items such as handbags or sneakers. These items will also be auctioned off, but in New York City later that month.
MGM hopes to auction off the artist’s works in order to diversify their art collection. They are planning to reinvest the proceeds from this auction to the art market, according to a press release by the MGM Group.
In a press release, MGM said that auctioning off the Picasso works would help its goal of "deepening diversity and inclusion" within its art collection with some of the proceeds being invested back into the art market