Picasso’s ‘Guitar on a Table,’ Long Held by MoMA, Sells for $37.1 Million at Sotheby’s
Painting is part of collection of works being sold off by foundation for CBS founder William Paley
A foundation for CBS founder William Paley has started selling off a trove of masterpieces long lent to New York’s Museum of Modern Art to fund an expansion of the museum’s digital footprint—including a Pablo Picasso that sold Monday for $37.1 million.
The sale at Sotheby’s landed a week after Christie’s made auction history selling Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s $1.5 billion art estate. While Mr. Allen’s art stirred up a marketing bonanza, collectors and dealers say they will be seeking clues about the market’s broader strength during these remaining sales in New York’s fall series.
While Sotheby’s evening sale on Monday totaled $392 million, one of its highest tallies, a few unsold works by artists including Edgar Degas and André Derain sapped some energy from Sotheby’s Manhattan saleroom.
Mr. Paley’s cubist Picasso from 1919, “Guitar on a Table,” was one of a couple dozen works at Sotheby’s put into MoMA’s care after the television pioneer died in 1990. The foundation said it decided to sell the art to raise roughly $70 million for several charitable causes, including helping the museum expand its digital footprint.
The yellow, pink and teal Picasso, which Mr. Paley bought as a young collector in 1946, had been expected to sell for at least $20 million. Two bidders on Monday wound up competing for it, pushing the price of the kaleidoscopic tablescape higher. A telephone bidder won the work.
Other pieces from Mr. Paley’s estate up for bid on Monday included Joan Miró’s 1949 abstract “Painting,” which sold for $1.4 million, over its $700,000 to $1 million estimate.
Last month in London, Sotheby’s helped the foundation sell Mr. Paley’s Francis Bacon from 1963, “Three Studies for Portrait of Henrietta Moraes,” for $27 million.
Monday’s sale of Piet Mondrian’s ‘Composition II’ sets a new record for the artist.
Ahead of the sale, MoMA director Glenn Lowry said the museum wants to use its proceeds to possibly launch its own art-related streaming channel and possibly team up with a university to offer degrees in art fields. “We need to increase our capacity off-site and online,” Mr. Lowry said.
Elsewhere in Sotheby’s sale, Piet Mondrian’s “Composition II” sold for $51 million, establishing a new record for the artist. The grid-like piece from 1930 was estimated to sell for around $50 million.
Sotheby’s sales on Monday also included the estate of former Whitney Museum of American Art President David Solinger. It topped $138 million and was led by a swirling 1950 untitled collage by Willem de Kooning that sold for $33.6 million.
Another Picasso, Mr. Solinger’s 1927 red-and-black view of a “Woman in an Armchair,” sold for $10 million—well under its $15 million low estimate.
Women artists continue to climb, with Sotheby’s selling Lee Krasner’s 1955 “Porcelain” for $3.7 million over its $3 million low estimate. “Portrait of Romana de la Salle,” Tamara de Lempicka’s 1928 view of the socialite in a pink gown, also sold for $14.1 million, over its $10 million low estimate.
New York’s major fall sales continue this week with additional sales by Sotheby’s, Christie’s and boutique house Phillips.