Picasso's "La Lecture" sold for $40.7M at Sotheby's in London on Feb 8

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views, Contributor

Picasso’s 1932 portraits of his paramour Marie-Therese Walter continue to triumph at auction, with Sotheby’s racking up $40.7 million (£25.2 million) last night in London for a swirling composition in lavenders and yellow.

La Lecture sold to an unnamed phone bidder, topping the £18 million high estimate. Sotheby’s reported a field of seven bidders in the salesroom and over the phone, during a six minute bidding battle.

Among the first works to feature Walter, she is depicted in sensual, colorful swirls, dozing in an armchair.

The painting sold during Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art evening sale which tallied $111 million, with a less than stellar 76 percent of the 42 lots finding buyers.

A 1955 gouache by Rene Magritte, Le Maitre d’Ecole, sold for $4 million, an auction record. Other highlights include a monumental sculpture of a horse and rider by Italian artist Marino Marini, L’idea del cavaliere (Idea for the Rider), which sold for $6.8 million. Lyonel Feininger’s maritime painting Raddampfer am Landungssteg (1912) sold for $5.1 million, more than double its high estimate.

Top Ten:

Title / Artist / Year / Winning Bid / Estimate / Buyer (according to auction house)

1. La Lecture by Pablo Picasso, 1932  $40.7 million (est. £12 – 18 million) Anonymous
2. I’ldea del Cavaliere (idea for the Rider) by Marino Marini, 1955  $6.7 million (est. £ 3.7 – 4.5 million) Anonymous
3. Argenteuil, fin d’apres-midi by Claude Monet, 1872 $5.5 million (est. £ 3.5 – 4.5 million) Anonymous
4. Raddamer Am Landungssteg (Side-Wheel Steamer at the Landing) by Lyonel Feininger, 1912 $5.1 million (est. £ 1 – 1.2 million) Anonymous
5. Le Maitre d’Ecole by Rene Magritte, 1955 $4 million  (est. £ 800,000 – 1.2 million) Anonymous
6. La Joconde by Rene Magritte, 1960 $3.95 million (est. £ 1.8 – 2.5 million) Private European
7. Venise, La Salute (Vert) by Paul Signac, 1908 $3.8 million (est. £ 1.8 – 2.5 million) Private European
8. Nu Couche by Pablo Picasso, 1967 $3.7 million (est. £ 2.5 – 3.5 million) Anonymous
9. Reclining Connected Forms by Henry Moore, 1969 $3.3 million (est. £ 1.5 – 2.5 million) Anonymous
10. Le Peintre et son modele dans un paysage by Pablo Picasso, 1963 $3.2 million (est. £ 600,000 – 800,000) US Buyer