Picasso painting sets world record for art auction at $179M

A painting by Pablo Picasso set a world record for artwork at an auction in New York, selling for $179.4 million on Monday night, and a sculpture by Alberto Giacometti set a record for most expensive sculpture, at $141.3 million. The buyers elected to remain anonymous.
“Women of Algiers,” once owned by the American collectors Victor and Sally Ganz, was inspired by Picasso’s fascination with the 19th-century French artist Eugene Delacroix. It is part of a 15-work series Picasso created in 1954-55 designated with the letters A through O. It has appeared in several major museum retrospectives of the Spanish artist.

Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture ‘Pointing man” was Conceived in 1947, “L’Homme au Doigt” is a 5-foot-10-inch-tall, knobby stick figure. The work was estimated at $130 million by Christie’s in New York. The sale price includes commissions but it sold for $141.3million.

Picasso’s “Women of Algiers (Version O)” and Giacometti’s life-size “Pointing Man” were among dozens of masterpieces from the 20th century offered at the auction in a curated sale titled “Looking Forward to the Past.”

The most expensive artwork sold at auction had been Francis Bacon’s “Three Studies of Lucian Freud,” which Christie’s sold for $142.4 million in 2013.

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