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Picasso masterpiece fetches record sale
A Pablo Picasso masterpiece has been sold for a record 41 million euros at Christie's auction house in London. The sale has set a record for the amount of money made at an art sale.
The "Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto" - also known as "The Absinthe Drinker" - is a 1903 work from the Spanish painter's Blue Period.
The sale, which also included works by Gustav Klimt, Vincent van Gogh and Henri Matisse - fetched an absolute record amount ever reached at a British art auction.
But while Christie’s celebrated the record sale, one of Claude Monet's celebrated water lily paintings failed to sell.
The 1906 work, "Nympheas", was a star lot at the impressionist and modern art evening sale and had been expected to fetch between 20 million euros. But it failed to find a buyer.
The painting was sold by British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber's foundation, a charity which focuses on the promotion of arts, culture and heritage in Britain. It acquired the work for US$29.2 million in New York in 1995.
