Picasso’s monumental 1932 Portrait of Marie-Thérèse Walter is coming to Dubai, setting a new record for the highest-value painting to be brought to the Middle East by an auction house. With an estimated value of over $120 Million, the masterpiece will be on view at Sotheby’s Dubai in the DIFC on September 25 and 26.
“It is a true privilege to have a masterpiece of this significance, by one of the world’s most well-known and well-loved artists, unveiled in the UAE as the first stop on its world tour. One of the greatest works of modern art, we have ever brought to auction, it is the perfect artwork to showcase and continue our commitment to bringing the best of art and culture to the region,” says Katia Nounou Boueiz, Head of Sotheby’s UAE.
It’s not the first time the auction house has brought high-value art to the region. “In 2020, we exhibited a painting by Botticelli, which was estimated in excess of $80 million, and at the time made headlines as the highest value painting ever to be brought to the Middle East by an auction house. Since then, we have exhibited some wonderful works by the likes of Boetti, Kandinsky, Warhol and more. The appearance of this Picasso on our walls in Dubai will now overtake the record set by the Botticelli piece, and also marks the first time a painting of this calibre by the artist has ever been exhibited anywhere in the UAE,” adds Nounou Boueiz.
The celebrated Picasso portrait on show this month comes from the collection of patron of the arts Emily Fisher Landau after hanging in her living room for more than 50 years. It was one of her first purchases in 1968 when she began her collecting journey.
“One of Emily Fisher Landau’s first major purchases, Picasso’s Femme à la Montre is a masterpiece by every measure. Painted in 1932 – Picasso’s ‘annus mirabilis’ – it is full of joyful, passionate abandon yet at the same time it is utterly considered and resolved. Its bold primary colours literally sing from the five-foot-tall-canvas. The Emily Fisher Landau Picasso is not just a stand-out work from a stand-out year, it is a definitive work in the story of Western art,” says Julian Dawes, Sotheby’s Head of Impressionist & Modern Art, Americas.
Marie-Thérèse Walter was known as Picasso’s ‘golden muse’ and this particular portrait is most notable for the size, scale and vibrancy of the work. It will be auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York on November 8 and 9.