Picasso work sells for $95.2 million

A painting by Picasso depicting his mistress with her cat became the second-most expensive painting sold at auction when a mystery buyer purchased it Wednesday night for $95.2 million at Sotheby’s New York. In market terms, “Dora Maar au chat” is second only to the artist’s “Garcon a la Pipe,” a 1905 work from Picasso’s Rose Period, which commanded $104.2 million at Sotheby’s in 2004.

The auction house reported that at least four bidders on telephones competed for “Dora Maar au chat” with the buyer, who sat in the back of the sales room. Apparently a new player in the auction scene, he was described by the New York Times as “a man appearing to be in his mid-’40s, wearing a blue blazer and a cream-colored shirt.” Bloomberg News reported that he wore a navy suit and pink shirt and had “a furrowed brow.” He reportedly bid openly with a numbered paddle, also buying a $5-million Monet and a $2.5-million Chagall, but was ushered out a side door to avoid the media.

“Dora Maar au chat,” painted in 1941 and out of the public eye for four decades, sold for nearly double its low estimated price of $50 million in a sale that brought more than $1 million apiece for 27 of the 55 works offered. A painting of a reclining nude by Henri Matisse, “Nu couche vu de dos,” commanded $18.4 million, the sale’s second-highest price, setting an auction record for the artist. Andre Derain’s Fauvist landscape, “Paysage a l’Estaque,” surpassed its high estimate of $5 million, selling for $6.8 million.

But works by Picasso dominated the annual spring big-ticket sale of Impressionist and Modern art.

Los Angeles philanthropist Eli Broad, often in the news as the buyer of expensive contemporary art, cashed in on a late Picasso, “Harlequin With Baton.” Made in 1969, when the artist was 88, it portrays the artist as a comically heroic warrior, brandishing a phallic symbol over his head. The roughly 6-by-4-foot work was sold to a telephone bidder for $10.1 million, its high estimate. Broad acquired the painting in 1996 from Larry Gagosian Gallery.

Two other Picassos also found new homes Wednesday night. “Femme assise dans un fauteuil,” consigned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, brought $6.7 million. “Sylvette,” a 1954 work, was sold for $4.6 million.

Sotheby’s charges a commission of 20% of the first $200,000 of the hammer price and 12% of the rest. Estimates do not include commissions.