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

Women of Algiers by Pablo Picasso sold for $179.4

mil

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.

Pointing man by Alberto Giacometti sold for

$141.3 mil

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.

Three studies of Lucian Freud by Francis Bacon

sod for $142.4 mil in 2013