- Sean 'Diddy' Combs sex trafficking trial set for May 2025
- Bolivia stun Colombia in World Cup qualifiers
- Internet Archive reels from 'catastrophic' cyberattack, data breach
- Greece earn late win against England in Nations League, Italy-Belgium stalemate
- Trump biopic 'The Apprentice' hits US theaters weeks before election
- Pavlidis dedicates 'special' Greece win over England to tragic Baldock
- Wall Street stocks retreat from records on US inflation data
- 'Like a quake': Beirut shaken after deadliest strikes on centre
- Fallen giants Ghana in AFCON trouble after Sudan draw
- Asian leaders meet in Laos with US, Russia on world turmoil
- England gamble backfires as Pavlidis fires emotional Greece to victory
- Obama stumps for Harris, Trump talks US protectionism
- New-look France ease past Israel in Nations League
- Belgium fight back to draw with 10-man Italy in Nations League
- 'Get a life': Hurricane whips up US election storm
- Japan stay perfect in World Cup qualifying
- Relief as Lebanon evacuees dock in Turkey
- Lebanon says 22 dead in Israeli strikes on central Beirut
- NBA boss Silver sees games back in China 'at some point'
- Israel strikes central Beirut, killing 22
- Table tennis and Netflix push Ukraine teen into French Open contention
- Civilians flee Gaza's Jabalia in tightening Israeli siege
- Israel strikes central Beirut, killing 18
- At least 10 dead in Florida from tornadoes caused by Hurricane Milton
- Warhol's rare 'Queen' collection opens at Dutch museum
- Three-time NBA champion Green retires
- MLB Twins up for sale after 40 years
- S.Sudan floods affect 893,000, over 241,000 displaced: UN
- Solar storm could impact US hurricane recovery efforts: agency
- Windies sweat on injury to 'crucial' Taylor at World Cup
- Lebanon says 11 dead, 48 injured in Israeli strikes on Beirut
- Panama lashes out at EU over tax haven 'outrage'
- Erdogan says Gaza 'shame of humanity', calls for permanent ceasfire
- TD Bank to pay more than $3 bn to US in money-laundering case
- SAfrica prosecutors drop criminal complaint against president
- 'Good opportunity': Nagelsmann upbeat despite Germany's long injury list
- Hurricane whips up bitter US election battle
- Cameroon bans media talk of president's health amid rumours
- NFL MVP Jackson and rookie phenom Daniels set for showdown
- Chad's capital under threat as floodwaters rise
- Lebanon state media says Israeli strikes hit central Beirut
- No answers on strike on reporters in Lebanon one year on: watchdog
- Ramharack picks four wickets as Windies beat Bangladesh in Women's T20 World Cup
- France's City of Light switches to climate-resilient power cables
- Djokovic hails Nadal 'legacy' as Alcaraz in 'shock' over retirement
- Obama hits campaign trail for Harris
- Delta eyes Election Day travel pullback as profits climb
- Djokovic tells Nadal: 'Your legacy will live forever'
- Ethel Kennedy, wife of RFK, dead at 96
- Zelensky denies ceasefire with Russia under discussion on trip
Picasso's 'Woman with a Watch' fetches $139 mn at auction: Sotheby's
One of Pablo Picasso's masterpieces, "Woman with a Watch," was sold at auction Wednesday night for $139.3 million by Sotheby's in New York, the second-highest price ever achieved for the artist.
The 1932 painting depicts one of the Spanish artist's companions and muses, the French painter Marie-Therese Walter, and had been valued at over $120 million before going on the block, according to Sotheby's.
The painting is part of Sotheby's special sale this week of the collection of the wealthy New York patron of the arts Emily Fisher Landau, who died this year at the age of 102.
Julian Dawes, the house's head of impressionist and modern art, called the Picasso canvas "a masterpiece by every measure."
"Painted in 1932 -- Picasso's 'annus mirabilis' -- it is full of joyful, passionate abandon yet at the same time it is utterly considered and resolved," he said.
Walter was considered Picasso's "golden muse", and features in another of his works going under the hammer on Thursday at Christie's: "Femme endormie," or "Sleeping Woman", estimated to sell for $25-$35 million.
Walter met Picasso in Paris in 1927, when the Spaniard was still married to Russian-Ukrainian ballet dancer Olga Khokhlova, and when Walter was 17.
She also featured in "Femme assise pres d'une fenetre (Marie-Therese)", which was sold in 2021 for $103.4 million by Christie's auction house.
In 2021, Sotheby's also sold another Picasso featuring Walter, for $103 million. The couple had a daughter together who died last year.
Fifty years after his death in 1973 aged 91, Picasso remains one of the most influential artists of the modern world, and is often hailed as a dynamic and creative genius.
But in the wake of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and assault, his reputation has been tarnished by accusations that he exerted a violent hold over the women who shared his life and inspired his art.
Sotheby's is hoping to net around $400 million in sales for pieces from Landau's collection, which also includes works by Jasper Johns, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol.
P.M.Smith--AMWN