Bill Koch sold a trove of Western art earlier this year. Now he’s putting the Moderns on the block with a Blue Period Picasso and Monet Waterlilies that Sotheby’s will have in November:
Billionaire William Koch is hoping to get as much as $110 million for his bosomy nude by Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet’s water lilies, about 11 times what he paid for the two works. The paintings will be offered during Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern art evening sale on Nov. 5 in New York. […]
Koch, 75, whose net worth is estimated at $3.5 billion by Bloomberg Billionaires Index, is founder and chief executive officer of Oxbow, a closely held commodities marketing and mining business based in Palm Beach, Florida.
Picasso’s “La Gommeuse” was painted in 1901, at the start of the artist’s Blue Period. He was 19 years old and arrived in Paris a year earlier. The oil-on-canvas depicts a nude cabaret dancer with a pale face, red lips and black curls. The painting, evocative of Paul Gauguin, is estimated at more than $60 million.
Bill Koch’s Picasso, Monet May Fetch $110 Million at Sotheby’s (Bloomberg Business)
