«I LIKE MONEY ON THE WALL»

First up is Sotheby’s on Tuesday May 3 with a 59-lot, evening sale estimated at $158.9m-$229.7m, and boasting a swathe of Picassos – 10, no less – as well as a unique Gauguin sculpture (“Jeune Tahitienne” about 1893, $10m-$15m), made of painted tamanu wood, pasted paper, with necklaces of red coral and shell. There is also a vibrantly colourful Von Jawlensky (“Woman with a Green Fan”, 1912, $8m-$12m) and a charming Bonnard (“Le Corsage Rayé”, about 1922, $3m-$5m).
The top lot in the sale is Picasso’s pensive portrait of two women, “Femmes Lisant”, one of the famed Marie-Thérèse series, this one painted in 1937 and showing her and a companion leaning over a book ($25m-$35m). Visitors to New York will also want to swing into Gagosian’s major show, Picasso and Marie-Thérèse: L’amour fou, on 21st Street, the largest exhibition yet of this sensual – and highly bankable – series of works featuring the artist’s sexually compliant young mistress.

-Financial Times
April 30 2011