New York : A Picasso picture of a cabaret artist, which carries a second painting on the reverse, has sold for $ 67.45 million in New York, scoring a windfall for American billionaire Bill Koch.
It was the top lot of the season so far, proving a savvy investment for the Republican party donor who paid just $ 3 million for the canvas in 1984 and later discovered he had got two for the price of one.
Sotheby’s had valued the canvas, “La Gommeuse,” at $ 60 million. It was painted in Paris in 1901 when the artist was just 19 years old and grieving the suicide of a close friend. In 2000, during restoration work, Koch discovered that there was another painting on the reverse – a mocking depiction of Picasso’s art dealer – that had been hidden under the lining for a century.
It was a lucrative night for Koch. Just minutes earlier, at the same auction, Sotheby’s sold his Monet “Water Lilies” study in oil for $ 33.85 million, clearing its minimum pre-sale estimate of $ 30 to 50 million. Another highlight was a Vincent van Gogh, which sold for $54 million. “Paysage sous un ciel mouvemente” (moving sky over a landscape) was painted a year before the artist’s death and shows storm clouds over fields outside Arles, France.
