Picasso’s First Cubist-Style Sculpture To Be Sold By The Met For $30 Million

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art will be selling Pablo Picasso’s first Cubist-style sculpture—a cast of a woman’s head—from 1909, expected to fetch a whopping US$30 million.

Tête de femme (Fernande) has been in the collection for over two decades, but will be deaccessioned as the museum recently acquired a duplicate of the same work from Leonard Lauder, known as one of the world’s foremost collectors of Cubist art.

Robb Report notes that proceeds from Christie’s sale, the date of which has yet to be announced, will go towards new acquisitions for the museum’s permanent collection.

According to Artnet News, Picasso created an estimated 20 identical bronze casts, depicting his lover, artist and model Fernande Olivier. The version up for sale had been a bequest of Florene M. Schoenborn, a life trustee of the museum.

Marc Porter, Christie’s Americas Chairman, said the work is “a rare example” of the artist’s work entering the secondary market, and that it marks “an absolutely crucial moment in the development of Picasso’s artistic practice.” 

“We are extraordinarily privileged to have had two casts of Picasso’s first Cubist sculpture—a masterpiece—thanks to the generosity of great patrons past and present,” said Met Director Max Hollein.

[via Robb Report and Artnet News, cover image via Christie’s]