Market-fresh Picasso cherries painting may fetch $1 million

7 June 2010 - by ArtfixDaily Staff

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Pablo Picasso, "Still Life of Bowl of Cherries," offered by Bloomington Auction Gallery with online bidding through LiveAuctioneers.

So far, 2010 has been the year of Picasso in the press. In May, Christie's sold the 1932 Picasso painting of his mistress, titled "Nude, Green Leaves and Bust," for the staggering sum of $106.5 million, a world record price for any work of art at auction. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is currently airing its collection of works by the modern master, just a few months after a Met visitor accidentally tore a six-inch hole in "The Actor," from the artist's Rose Period.

On June 12, a Midwestern auction house is offering up "Still life with Bowl of Cherries," a small, unframed painting signed "Picasso," with an estimate of $400,000 to $1 million.

Bloomington Auction House in Illinois is selling the undated oil on board, measuring about 9 inches by 11¾ inches, for private collectors. The work has never been offered publicly, says the lot's catalog description.

The reverse is signed again by Picasso and dedicated “to my friend Bergruen,” a misspelled reference to the artist's friend, Heinz Berggrun, who originally owned the painting, according to the auction house.

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