New Record at Auction

Picasso's engraving La Minotauromachie (1935) has become the most expensive engraving ever sold at auction. It was auctioned on September 16 by Sotheby´s Auction House in London, and the bidding it generated reached the 1.55 million euros mark ($2,070 million USD). The previous record for a single engraving sold at an auction was held by one of Edvard Munch's "Madonnas," which sold for 1.49 million euros ($1,989 million USD). The work is a 49.8 by 69.3-cm etching created in the summer of 1935 and printed by Roger Lacourière. According to James Mackie, a Sotheby's expert on La Minotauromachie, the work is regarded as one of the great works of Picasso, as it ¿conveys some of Picasso's key themes and demonstrates an unsurpassable technical mastery.¿ During this same auction event, Sotheby¿s also sold¿among other 57 other engravings by the Spanish artist¿Weeping Woman (1937), which sold for 1.30 million euros ($1,736 USD) and well above the estimated selling price. Both prints belonged to the same collector. The MoMA in New York, the Museo Picasso in Barcelona, and the Musée National Picasso in Paris also have prints of this masterpiece. The Barcelona work was donated by Picasso himself in 1938.