Sotheby’s to Stage Las Vegas Auction of MGM’s Famed Picassos
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MGM Resortsis selling 11 works this fall by Pablo Picassovalued at an estimated US$100 million that had once been in the collection of Steve Wynn’sMirage Resorts.
MGM bought Mirage in 2000, and with it, a portion of its famed art collection, which included works by EdgarDegas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir,and Vincent van Gogh.The Picasso works starred in the Picasso restaurant at the Bellagio hotel and casino in Las Vegas, a former Mirage property.
On Saturday, Oct. 23, the Picassos—representing the breadth of the artist’s career over five decades—will go on sale in a standalone marquee auction led by Sotheby’s at the Bellagio. It’ll be the auction house’s first live auction held in North America outside of its New York saleroom.
The collection represents a “capsule of Picasso’s work” from 1917 to 1969, including ceramics, works on paper, and oil paintings, says Brooke Lampley,chairman and worldwide head of sales for global fine art at Sotheby’s.
“It’s a pretty encyclopedic presentation of Picasso’s career,” Lampley says. “To be able to summarize as virtuoistic and versatile an artist as Picasso in 11 works is remarkable.”
MGM is selling the works so it can broaden its collection of modern and contemporary art to include more artists from underrepresented communities, Ari Kastrati,chief hospitality officer at MGM Resorts indicated in a statement.
The sale also fulfills a broader artistic mission for MGM Resorts “to galvanize Vegas as an arts destination,” Lampley says.
MGM has a stake in encouraging that perception as its own art collection is displayed throughout several properties. Its ARIA Fine Art Collection was the first permanent collection of public art in Las Vegas when it was introduced in 2009, and MGM and ARIA Resort and Casino are among title sponsors for Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone’sSeven Magic Mountains, a popular desert art installation located south of Las Vegas.
Toward that goal of becoming an arts destination, Sotheby’s will curate a four-day exhibition of luxury autos, jewelry, watches, and handbags at MGM’s ARIA resort the weekend of the Picasso sale, from Oct. 21-24.
The exhibition “could possibly be a recurring event in the future,” Lampley says. “It’s about exploring Vegas. This is another component of the programming of what the city is known for.”
The auction will be led by Picasso’s Femme au béret rouge-orange, a 1938 painting of Marie-Thérèse Walter,which has an estimated value between US$20 million and $30 million. The portrait is one of Picasso’s final works of his former muse and lover, and one he held in his private collection for years, Sotheby’s said.
The painting “is exactly what is most desirable to the market today—these portraits of the muses, particularly Marie-Thérèse, who was the most romantic fascination of his career,” Lampley says.
There are also two large, late-period works, both painted in 1969: Homme et enfant, which also carries an estimate between US$20 million and US$30 million, and Buste d’homme, estimated to sell for between US$10 million and US$15 million.
Homme et enfant, one of the largest paintings by the artist at 76 ¾ x 51 ⅛ inches, “feels so contemporary,” Lampley says. “We’re still learning about how prescient his work was in this period of time.”
Two wartime still lifes by the artist also stand out to Lampley “by virtue of the scale and density of composition,” and the fact they are quite different from each other.
Nature morte au panier de fruits et aux fleurs, 1942, which also carries an estimate between US$10 million and US$15 million, is more Cubist, while Nature morte aux fleurs et au compotier, 1943, estimated to sell for between US$6 million and US$8 million, is more “sinuous,” Lampley says.
The paintings are “an illustration of how Picasso worked differently on any given day that even in a short period of time such similar works could look so different,” she says.
And Pierrot, 1917, a work of brush and black ink on paper laid down on board, stands out for being an “incredibly elegant, poignant portrait of a man with sorrowful, introspective eyes. It looks so intense and naturalistic compared to everything else,” Lampley says.
After the auction, MGM Resorts will still own 12 works by Picasso.
The October sale will take place during the month of what would have been Picasso’s 140th birthday, which Lampley says was “great happenstance.”
The decision to hold the sale in Las Vegas was mutual, and perhaps made easier by more than a year spent devising new ways to sell art.
“Coming off the pandemic, one of the main insights for us is that clients are resilient, adaptable, and in fact excited by change more than we had expected or programmed for in the past,” Lampley says. “This felt like a natural byproduct of that realization.”
The Picasso auction will be livestreamed to clients globally on Oct. 23. Exhibitions of all 11 works will be seen at Sotheby’s galleries in New York from Sept. 7-13, and at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art in Last Vegas from Oct. 21-23. A traveling exhibition of highlights will go to Taipei Sept. 17-18 and Hong Kong Oct. 7-11.
