Picasso's Rare Surrealist Painting Heads to Christie's with £14-24m Estimate

Christie's will offer Pablo Picasso's 'La fenêtre ouverte' in its The Art of the Surreal Evening Sale on March 1, 2022, with a pre-sale estimate of £14-24 million. The painting, executed on November 22, 1929, depicts his secret lover and muse Marie-Thérèse Walter and belongs to the Atelier series begun in 1926. It has remained in the same European collection for fifty years. The work was included in Picasso's major 1932 retrospective at Galerie Georges Petit in Paris and Kunsthaus Zürich, as well as MoMA's 1968 exhibition 'Dada, Surrealism & Their Heritage'. Art historian John Richardson suggested the scene is set in Picasso's shared apartment on the Rive Gauche, identifiable by the twin spires of the church of Sainte-Clotilde visible through the window. The sale coincides with the inauguration of Christie's new offices at BUND ONE in Shanghai, marking the first auction in the city since the pandemic. Christie's is the only Western auction house authorized to operate in mainland China and the first to sell a Picasso work there. The painting will be exhibited in New York, Hong Kong, and London before the sale. The session '20/21 Shanghai to London' includes three sales: 20th/21st Century: Shanghai Evening Sale, London Evening Sale, and The Art of the Surreal Evening Sale.