Dubai: $120 Million Picasso Masterpiece on Display at DIFC
A Picasso masterpiece is on display in Dubai ahead of an auction later this year.
“Femme à la montre” has an estimated value of £120m and is on display at DIFC, before it travels on to Hong Kong and London.
It will then return to New York, where it will be auctioned in November, with an estimate in excess of $120m.
It is a rare opportunity for art enthusiasts and collectors to see one of the twentieth century’s most important artworks.
Bought by Emily Fisher Landau in 1968, the major acquisition has been hanging above the mantlepiece in her New York home for more than five decades.
The work is considered one of Picasso’s finest creations. Its date, scale, subject, vibrancy and provenance are all exceptional.
Depicting Marie-Thérèse Walter, the artist’s “golden muse” and the subject of many of his most accomplished portraits, it dates from 1932, a year of such importance that an entire museum exhibition was dedicated to it (Tate Modern & Musée Picasso Paris 2018).
Sheikh Salem bin Khalid Al Qassimi, Minister of Culture and Youth, said “Over the years the UAE has earned the status of being a global art destination, which receives a further boost as this rare Picasso is unveiled here. Art enthusiasts and collectors in the UAE will have the privilege of viewing the masterpiece first before it sets out on a world tour. We commend Sotheby’s for choosing the UAE as the first stop for the Picasso masterpiece, which returns for exhibition outside of America after 50 years. Dubai’s hosting of the rare Picasso underscores its importance in attracting the best of art and its role in furthering the global art movement. We welcome such endeavours that boost the local communities’ engagement with the international art world and help foster a stronger cultural and creative ecosystem.”
