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Seven unique ceramic plates and dishes painted by celebrated Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, created between 1947 and 1964, have been sold in Geneva, Switzerland, for a total of 272,000 Swiss francs – almost €290,000.
Yep, Picasso was also a tableware artist.
The never-before-seen hand-painted ceramics, featuring birds, fish and goats, were designed in the Madoura Pottery Workshop in Vallauris (Alpes-Maritimes). They had been kept privately for almost 40 years.
Piguet of Geneva (Switzerland), which handled the sale, noted in a press release that the estimated price for the lots was 145,000 Swiss francs (€154,000) – making the auction a surprising success.
The sum fetched at auction “reflects the public’s enthusiasm for the master’s works in all their forms,” stated Piguet.
“Picasso was already an internationally-renowned artist,” Adeline Bisch Balerna, head of paintings and sculptures at Piguet, told AFP prior to the sale. “He had already opened up a huge number of avenues for all artists; the great, well-known works had been created, and he was seeking new means of expression for his art.”
In the ceramic medium, the record for a Picasso stands at £980,275 (€1.149m) for the prototype for the artist’s 1950 vase Grand vase aux femmes voilées at Christie’s London in 2013.
Additional sources • AFP, Artnet