11 Picasso art to be auctioned in his biggest sale

NEW YORK: On October 23, MGM Resorts will sell 11 Picassos that could bring in as much as $104 million. The sale, which will take place live at the Bellagio in Las Vegas -- where the works were on display -- and be conducted by Sotheby’s, will include paintings, works on paper, and ceramics.

The sale could fetch some $100 million and is thought to be the most valuable auction dedicated to Picasso that has ever been held.

“Our collection has evolved over time,” says Ari Kastrati, MGM Resorts’ chief hospitality officer. “Our goal with our collection has always been to evolve it further, and focus on diversity, and give voice to underrepresented artists. We’ve done a great job with that over the years, and we believe now is a time to double down on it.”

That diversity effort encompasses but is not limited to work by “women, artists of color, and the LGBTQIA community,” Kastrati says, though he declines to comment on whether the full proceeds of the sale will go to purchasing work by those artists. “We’d like to get through the auction and the weekend we’d planned first,” he says.

The details of the auction itself, though, are ready for the spotlight.

The top lot is expected to be Picasso’s 1938 painting Femme au Béret Rouge-Orange, which depicts the artist’s lover and muse, Marie-Thérèse Walter, and carries an estimate of $20 million to $30 million.

In all, the Picasso works up for auction include five paintings, some of which were displayed for years in the Bellagio’s fine dining restaurant, Picasso. The portrait of Marie-Thérèse hung above a sideboard; the 1969 painting Buste d’Homme, estimated between $10 million

and $15 million, hung behind the restaurant’s bar.

And the large-scale Homme et Enfant, also from 1969 and estimated to sell between $20 million and $30 million, hung over a different sideboard in the restaurant’s lounge.

The collection was started more than 20 years ago by real estate developer Steve Wynn, former owner of the Bellagio and former chief executive of Wynn Resorts.

Other major works were in similarly accessible locations. The 1942 still life Nature Morte au Panier de Fruits et aux Fleurs, estimated to sell between $10 million and $15 million, hung over a banquette alongside the 1943 Nature Morte aux Fleurs et au Compotier, which has an estimate of $6 million to $8 million.

There’s also a handful of comparatively lower-priced lots. A white terra cotta pitcher from 1954 is estimated between $60,000 and $80,000; a gouache (a type of watercolour) on paper from 1967, Tête d’Homme, carries an estimate of $1.5 million to $2 million.

Before they’re sold, the works will travel to New York on Sept. 7-13; a smaller selection will be sent to Taipei and Hong Kong later in the month. The sale itself will take place in a “recreated version of the auction house’s storied salesroom” in the Bellagio, according to a Sotheby’s press release.