Pablo Picasso's masterpiece "Woman with a Watch," is the most valuable work of art sold globally at an auction this year.
The piece depicts one of the Spanish artist's lovers and muses , the French painter Marie-Therese Walter Image: Fatih Aktas/AA/picture alliance
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Pablo Picasso's 1932 painting "Woman with a Watch" has been sold for $139.3 million (€129.9 million) at an auction by Sotheby's in New York.
It is the second-highest price ever achieved for the painter's work.
An anonymous buyer outbid two others to secure the masterpiece on Wednesday.
The story behind Picasso's 'Woman with a Watch'
The painting depicts one of the Spanish artist's lovers and muses — French painter Marie-Therese Walter — seated in a throne-like chair against a blue background.
Walter met Picasso in Paris in 1927 at the age of 17, when he was still married to Russian-Ukrainian ballet dancer Olga Khokhlova. Their passionate affair inspired Picasso to create numerous portraits of Walter.
The painting is a part of a special sale showcasing an estimated $400 million collection of artworks owned by art patron Emily Fisher Landau who died this year.
Picasso’s path in Málaga
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The most-expensive Picasso painting to sell at auction, "Les femmes d'Alger" fetched $179.3 million, including a buyer’s premium, at Christie’s in 2015.
Picasso remains one of the most influential artists of the modern world.
Picasso: 70 years of art
Pablo Picasso produced dozens of paintings, ceramics and sculptures during his lifetime. Here is a look at some of the landmark pieces he created during his lifetime.
Image: Lev Radin/Pacific Press/picture alliance
'The Old Guitarist'
Created in the early 1900s, "The Old Guitarist" is a landmark painting of Picasso's Blue Period, when the artist used primarily shades of blue as a reflection of his somber mood. Recent X-ray and infrared examinations found that different figures were hidden behind the old guitarist.
Image: Peter Barritt/Avalon/picture alliance
'The Portrait of Gertrude Stein'
Painted between 1905 and 1906, the painting features the trademark pink hues of Picasso's Rose Period. The American writer was a patron of avant-garde European art and played a key role in making Picasso famous.
Image: Peter Barritt/Avalon/picture alliance
'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'
Considered a pioneering example of cubism, "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" (The Young Ladies of Avignon) was completed in 1907 and created controversy for its bizarre representation of women's bodies and dispersed perspective.
Image: Peter Foley/dpa/picture-alliance
'Guernica'
Painted for a 1937 exposition in Paris, this gigantic work was Pablo Picasso's reaction to the Nazi bombing of the Basque town of Guernica that year. The artist used several metaphorical figures, including a bull, a tortured horse, a weeping woman holding her dead child and other figures to depict the horrors of war.
Image: Lev Radin/Pacific Press/picture alliance
'Dora Maar au Chat'
Picasso created this painting of his mistress, Dora Maar, in 1941. To him, she symbolized the weeping, suffering woman. Memoirs by Picasso's lover Francoise Gilot in 1967, and his granddaughter, Marina Picasso, in 2001, revealed Picasso's misogynistic attitudes and the pain he inflicted on the women he was with during his lifetime.
Image: epa Geoff Caddick/dpa/picture-alliance
'Massacre in Korea'
This work was completed in 1951 to represent the killings of innocent civilians by US soldiers during the Korean War. Experts believe Picasso was inspired by works like Goya's "The Third of May 1808" (1814) and Edouard Manet's "The Execution of Emperor Maximilian" (1868). Recently, climate activists in Australia glued their hands to Picasso's anti-war work in protest.
Image: Matt Hrkac/Extinction Rebellion/AFP
'Dove'
Picasso created this lithograph in 1949 using the model of a Milanese pigeon and the image was used to decorate a poster for the 1949 Paris Peace Congress. The creation as well as several other sketches by Picasso featuring doves are still very popular today.
