The all-knowing Deborah Ripley lets loose with another one of her peerless print reports on Artnet. In the process, she reveals that the buyer of the Picasso print that set a record for any single print sold at auction was not some over-excited, neophyte collector:
chose to save their top lot, the rare Pablo Picasso Weeping Woman (1937), in an edition of 15, estimated at $1.5 million-$2.5 million for the Tuesday night Impressionist and modern art evening sale. The gamble paid off, sort of. It fetched $5,122,500, a new world record for any print anywhere at auction, but the buyer was John Szoke, a print dealer, disproving the myth that print collectors are too stingy to compete in the art-collecting big leagues. (Szoke claims he will be keeping the work for his private collection.)
IFPDA and Print Auction Highlights (Artnet)