Picasso's $139.4M painting tops 2023 auction sales at Sotheby's

Sotheby's New York achieved a record $406.4 million total from The Emily Fisher Landau Collection: An Era Defined evening sale on November 8, 2023, the highest ever for a female collector's collection. The top lot was Pablo Picasso's 'Femme à la montre' (1932), sold for $139.4 million, making it the most expensive artwork sold at auction in 2023 and the second highest price for the artist. Other highlights included Jasper Johns' 'Securing the Last Letter (Boss)' at $39.4 million (second best for the artist), Ed Ruscha's 'Securing the Last Letter (Boss)' at $39.4 million (second best for the artist), and new auction records for Agnes Martin ('Grey Stone II' at $18.7 million) and Mark Tansey ('Triumph Over Mastery II' at $11.8 million). Georgia O'Keeffe's 'Pink Tulip (Abstraction – #77 Tulip)' sold for $5.7 million. The sale was fully guaranteed by third parties. Emily Fisher Landau, a major philanthropist and collector, donated over 400 works to the Whitney Museum in 2010 and served on its board. After her death in March 2023 at age 102, about 120 works were consigned to Sotheby's, with 31 lots in the evening sale and 82 more in a day sale on November 9.