Picasso's Women of Algiers has become the most expensive painting to sell at auction, going for $160m (£102.6m) at Christie's in New York.Eleven minutes of prolonged bidding from telephone buyers preceded the final sale - for much more than its pre-sale estimate of $140m.
The final price of $179.3m (£115m) includes commission of just over 12%.Picasso has been in the news because of the reopening of the Musée Picasso in Paris last year. After all the controversies over its prolonged closure, the relaunched museum put Picasso right back at the centre of world art where he belongs.
His supremacy in modern art suddenly became obvious again. There is, in short, a buzz about Picasso right now – to put it in the dumbest possible way.
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