Sue Gross-es $37M on ‘real’ Picasso

A Pablo Picasso painting at the center of a nasty divorce battle between billionaire bond king Bill Gross and his now-ex-wife Sue fetched $36.9 million at a Sotheby’s auction Monday night. The hammer price for Picasso’s 1932 “Le Repos,” which depicts the famed painter’s lover MarieThérèse Walter, was 4.5 times greater than the price it won at auction in 2000, Sotheby’s said in a tweet Monday. The piece was expected to sell for $35 million.

However, the backstory of how the painting made its way to Sotheby’s is just as juicy as anything found in the famed painter’s collection.

The former Mrs. Gross was awarded the painting in August 2017 after she won a coin flip amid the couple’s divorce proceedings, The Post exclusively reported last week.

When Gross tried to make arrangements to transfer the piece to his wife, he was stunned to learn she al- ready had it.

“Bill was shocked Sue already had the piece,” a source told The Post, adding that Bill said, “She stole the damn thing.”

The ex-wife not only took the piece, she replaced it with a replica she had painted herself, she readily admitted in November testimony, where she cited an email Bill sent to her where he instructed her to “take all the furniture and art that you’d like.” “And so I did,” she said. But it wasn’t quite that simple, as testimony re- vealed the ex-wife’s prowess for both painting and artful deception.

“Well, you didn’t take it and leave an empty spot on the wall, though, did you?” lawyers for Bill Gross asked. “No,” Sue responded. “You replaced it with a fake?” the lawyer asked.

“Well, it was a painting I painted,” Sue responded.

But Bill Gross shouldn’t have been too surprised by his ex-wife’s ploy.

In a June 2015 investor notice he penned at Janus Capital, Gross noted his wife’s penchant for painting.

“[Sue] likes to paint replicas of some of the famous pieces,” Gross wrote.

“‘ Why spend $20 million?’ she’d say — ‘I can paint that one for $75,’ and I must admit that one fabulous Picasso with signature ‘Sue,’ heads the fireplace mantle in our bedroom,” Bill continued.

The Gross divorce was finalized on Oct. 6, 2017.

A portion of the proceeds from Monday’s sale will go to charity through The Sue J. Gross Foundation, Sotheby’s tweeted Monday.