Pablo Picasso - Nude, Green Leaves and Bust 1932

Pablo Picasso Nude, Green Leaves and Bust 1932

Nude, Green Leaves and Bust 1932
162x130cm oil/canvas
Sold for: USD 106.5 million
Auction house: Christie's, New York
Sale date: 4 May 2010
Seller: Frances Lasker Brody estate
Buyer: Leonard Blavatnik

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Nude, Green Leaves and Bust is one of a series of portraits that Picasso painted of his mistress and muse Marie-Thérèse Walter from 1932. The vibrant blue and lilac canvas is more than 5 feet (1.5 m) tall.
At the time, Picasso was in an exclusive contractual relationship with noted impressionist and post-impressionist French-Jewish art dealer Paul Rosenberg, who bought the painting direct from his friend. With the increasing tones of an approaching war, in the late 1930s Rosenberg started to distribute works from his 2,000+ piece collection around the world, and used the 1939 New York World's Fair as the excuse to ship the painting outside France. After the 1940 Nazi invasion of France, on reaching New York via Lisbon in September 1940, Rosenberg opened a new branch of his noted gallery on East 57th street, and put the painting back on display.