Art has never been cheap, but the past few months have seen the rise of some of the most expensive works of art by the greatest masters of painting in the last couple of centuries; now, a Pablo Picasso painting inspired by Eugene Delacroix was sold for almost $200 million.
A few months back, Food World News reported that Paul Gaughin's "When Will You Marry?" became the most expensive piece of art in history; and now, barely three months after this occasion, a recently auctioned Pablo Picasso painting became the most expensive one ever sold through that medium.
According to The Mirror, the Pablo Picasso painting, entitled "Women of Algiers," was sold after 11 minutes of absolutely frantic bidding at Christie's New York, as some of the most important art lovers in the world fought over having the master's painting in their possession.
The Pablo Picasso painting depicting nude and semi-nude women is part of a 15-work series the Spanish artist created between 1954 and 1955, inspired by Picasso's own fascination with 19th century French painter Delacroix's 1834 work "Women of Algiers in their Apartment."
The Star reports that the Pablo Picasso painting's auction was one of the most highly expected ones in recent times, and seemingly there was nothing silent about it as it broke the record of a painting sold at auction with $179,365,000.
According to The Independent, price was announced through Christie's Twitter account last Monday, in a sale that also featured a life-size sculpture by Alberti Giacometti called "Pointing Man," which sold for the also quite staggering amount of $141 million, breaking a record of its own: it's now officially the most expensive sculpture ever sold at auction, breaking Giacometti's previous record of $104.3 million.
The identity of the buyers of either artwork hasn't yet been disclosed, but the Pablo Picasso painting in question has appeared in a great number of museum retrospective of the iconic 20th century artist.