The Next Nine-Figure Painting?

Colin Gleadell thinks Frances Brody’s Picsso has a shot at taking the honors for most expensive picture sold at auction:

If any artist can topple Giacometti’s $104 million world record for a work of art at auction, it is Picasso. Last week at the Maastricht art fair, bets were on that Picasso’s Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, from the collection of Mrs Sidney F Brody, could be the one to do it when offered by Christie’s in New York in May. Estimated at $80 million, it compares with Le Rêve, another work from the series, which was to be sold privately for $139 million by Las Vegas hotelier Steve Wynn, before he inadvertently put his elbow through it. Certainly Picasso’s palette boards, on which he mixed his paints, were in record price territory at Maastricht. At the Galerie Krugier, a group from the collection of Picasso’s daughter Marina were priced from €110,000 to €2 million.