Versace's Picassos Go On Sale
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Versace's Picassos Go On Sale
By CAROLINE BYRNE
LONDON (AP) - In a rare auction, 25 Pablo Picasso works owned by
murdered
fashion designer Gianni Versace and valued at $13 million go on sale
Tuesday.
Also under the hammer at the Sotheby's sale were three impressionist
works,
including Paul Cezanne's ``Bouilloire et fruits,'' stolen in the United
States
in 1978 and recovered this year.
Cezanne's still life of fruit with a pewter pitcher, expected to fetch
up to
$19.4 million, was stolen from two Massachusetts pediatricians, the late
Dr.
Harry Bakwin and his wife, Ruth. It was recovered after an insurer
contacted
the London-based Art Loss Register.
The London auction follows Sotheby's impressionist and modern art sale
in New
York in November, which took in $242.6 million over two days.
``The market is very strong and people are prepared to pay top prices
for
highly collectable work,'' said Helena Newman, Sotheby's senior director
and
specialist in impressionist and modernist art.
For collectors, Tuesday's auction has the extra appeal of buying a
Picasso work
once owned by a famous collector and designer, Newman said.
Versace's collection includes five oils and 20 drawings from 1902 to the
1960's, including a rare nude self-portrait, drawn when Picasso was 21
years
old.
The two key works are 1938 oil portraits.
``Woman Sitting in a Chair'' is Picasso's portrait of his mistress Dora
Maar,
expected to sell for up to $9.7 million. ``Young Girl with Boat''
features the
painter's eldest daughter Maya holding a model boat, and valued at $3.2
million
to $4.8 million.
Versace, killed in 1997 at his Mediterranean-style palazzo in Miami
Beach, was
an avid collector of paintings and antique furniture. He was shot twice
in the
head by suspected serial killer Andrew Cunanan, who later committed
suicide.
The designer's family is selling the Picassos to trim an enormous
estate, not
because of financial problems, spokesman Lou Colasuonno said.
After the Picassos, the Cezanne painting, circa 1888-90, and two Vincent
Van
Gogh works go on sale with other modern and impressionist art.
The French impressionist's work was stolen from the Bakwins' Lenox,
Mass.,
home, along with other, less valuable paintings.
Insurers and police say the investigation into the theft continues and
authorities have not identified a suspect or said what happened to the
painting
during the two decades it was missing.
``It hasn't suffered at all. It is in beautiful condition. It is amazing
to see
it again,'' Newman said.
Van Gogh works include the 1889 ``Oliviers avec les alpilles au fond,''
an ink
drawing of olive trees, expected to go for up to $3.2 million.
His 1887 painting, ``A Park In Spring,'' is being sold from the private
collection of a Dutch family and is expected to fetch up to $6.5
million.
AP-NY-12-07-99
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The following appears courtesy of the 12/7/99 British Broadcasting
Corporation news wire:
Tuesday, 7 December, 1999
Versace's Picasso auction
More than 20 works by the artist Pablo Picasso are to go under the
hammer at an
auction of possessions belonging to the late fashion designer Gianni
Versace.
The collection of five oils and 20 drawings by the Spanish artist will
form the
centrepiece of the sale at Sotheby's in London on Tuesday.
The auction house expects the pieces to fetch more than £8m.
Versace was murdered at his home in 1997
"The group spans Picasso's entire career and is particularly rich in
works
dating from the artist's Blue and Rose periods," said a spokesperson.
The best known among the pictures on offer is a 1938 oil called Young
Girl with
Boat, featuring Picasso's eldest daughter Maya dressed in a sailor's
suit and
holding a model boat.
Another familiar oil is Woman Sitting on a Chair, a portrait of the
artist's
mistress Dora Maar.
Versace - who was gunned down, aged 50, on 15 July 1997 outside his
house in
Miami Beach, Florida - was throughout his life an avid purchaser of
impressionist and contemporary art.
His set of Picassos, mostly acquired in the 1980s, represent only a
small
proportion of his whole collection which also includes works by Henri
Matisee,
Jean-Michel Basquiat and Julian Schnabel.
Woman on a Chair was a portrait of Picasso's mistress
The Versace family say they are being sold to slim down the size of the
multi-millionaire's huge estate.
"I think it would be unreasonable to expect the family to keep
everything that
Gianni collected over his lifetime," said family spokesman Lou
Colasuonno.
The auction of the Italian designer's Miami mansion is also being
handled by
Sotheby's. The asking price for the 12-bedroomed beachfront
Mediterranean-style
palazzo is said to be £14.3m.
Suspected serial killer Andrew Cunanan shot Versace twice in the head at
the
gate to the house two years ago.
A search for Cunanan, who was wanted for the murders of four other men,
ended
nine days later when he was found dead. It is thought he killed himself.
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