Pablo Picasso’s painting of a teenage nude with flowers sold for $115 million at a Christie’s auction on Tuesday. The painting, done in 1905 during the famous artist’s Rose Period, was estimated to be worth $100 million, which was the highest pre-sale value among more than 1,500 lots of the Peggy and David Rockefeller collection, reports Bloomberg. The painting was previously owned by Gertrude Stein, the American writer and collector who was friends with Picasso and other artists in early 20th-century Paris. According to Christie’s, Stein’s brother Leo bought the painting for $30 in 1905. Then, in 1968, Rockefeller formed a syndicate of fellow Museum of Modern Art trustees to buy the Stein estate when it came up for sale. Rockefeller got first pick of what to buy from the estate and he chose “Young Girl with a Flower Basket.”
Other artworks among the Rockefeller collection also sold for record numbers. Henri Matisse’s painting generated $80.8 million with fees, reports Bloomberg, and a Claude Monet water lilies painting sold for a record $84.7 million, far exceeding the $50 million pre-sale estimate.
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