Japanese Firm Pays Record $48.9 Million for a Picasso

A Japanese real estate tycoon paid $48.9 million today to set a world auction record for a painting by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso.

But Picasso’s “Les Noces de Pierrette” fell short of expectations that it would replace Vincent Van Gogh’s “Irises” as the world’s most expensive painting.

Art experts had predicted that the auction, conducted simultaneously in Paris and Tokyo by a satellite link-up, would break the 1987 Van Gogh record of $53.9 million. The Picasso becomes the world’s second most expensive work of art.

The buyer, Tomonori Tsurumaki, representing his firm, Nippon Autopolis Co., plans to make the painting the centerpiece in an auto racing theme resort in the mountains in southern Japan. He will pay a total of $51.35 million when auctioneers fees of 5% are added to the hammer price.

Paloma Picasso, the artist’s daughter, told reporters she was staggered at the price. “It’s an extraordinary sum; I don’t know what my father would have thought.”

The auction price of Picasso’s work has exploded. Today’s sale was the third time this year one of his works has topped $40 million.

“Les Noces de Pierrette,” painted in 1905 soon after Picasso arrived in Paris from Barcelona, is a figurative work from Picasso’s blue period showing a harlequin blowing a kiss to a newly wedded bride.

The painting reappeared at a Stockholm exhibit last year after being missing for several decades. Some thought it had been lost or destroyed.

Bidding at today’s auction rose rapidly to $42.6 million when a buyer in Paris hesitated. The Frenchman’s final bid of $46 million was topped by Tsurumaki’s final offer of $48.9 million.

French film star Alain Delon embraced the disappointed Frenchman as applause broke out at the end of the auction.

Delon said he was mandated by a Japanese friend to bid up to $32 million “but I didn’t even have a chance to put my hand up.”

A Paris appeals court Wednesday rejected a last-minute attempt to halt the sale by the sister of a man who sold the painting to Swedish banker Fredrik Roos, who owned it until today. Valerie Goulet claimed her brother did not have the right to sell the painting.