'Nude Green Leaves, and Bust,' a 1932 painting by Pablo Picasso, was sold at auction by Christie's in New York for $106.5 million, setting a new world record for any work of art sold at auction.
A 78-year-old Pablo Picasso painting of his mistress sold at auction Tuesday night for a world record $106.5 million.
Christie's International had estimated the lilac-hued "Nude, Green Leaves and Bust" would fetch only a mere $70 million to $90 million.
It was bought by an undisclosed deep-pocketed bidder on the phone. The sale topped the $103.4 million that took Giacometti's "Walking Man I" in February at Sotheby's in London.
The striking painting of Picasso's blond mistress, Marie-Therese Walter, had been exhibited in the U.S. only once, in 1961 in Los Angeles to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Picasso's birth.
It belonged to the late California art patron Frances Lasker Brody, who bought it in the 1950s.
Part of the sale proceeds will benefit the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, Calif., where she was on the board.
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