A clutch of one-off and hitherto unseen ceramic plates and dishes by Pablo Picasso are to go under the hammer in Geneva on Thursday next week.
Emblematic motifs from Picasso’s artistic universe — pigeons, fish, a goat, a bull and a bird adorn the colorful plates and dishes.
“It’s a truly exceptional collection. The plates and dishes we have here are real Picasso works,” said Bernard Piguet, director of the Piguet auction house in Geneva.
Photo: Fabrice Coffrini, AFP
“These unique pieces belonged to Picasso’s estate, and in the early 1980s, his heirs gave them to one of their friends,” he said.
The close friend, a French art lover whose name has not been revealed, kept them until his death. His heirs have decided to put the ceramics up for sale.
Made between 1947 and 1963 in the Madoura workshop in Vallauris on the southeast French coast, the ceramic artworks are being exhibited to the general public for the first time ahead of the auction.
‘REASONABLE PRICES’
The seven pieces are being sold in separate lots.
Two large platters decorated with pigeons are expected to fetch between 30,000 and 50,000 Swiss francs (US$36,900 to US$61,485). A third plate depicting three blue, pink and brick-colored fish on a white background, resembling a child’s drawing, is estimated at SF20,000 to SF30,000.
A thin brick, titled Head of a Bearded Man, and painted with ceramic pastels in yellow, white, garnet, brown, blue orange and green, has the same estimate.
Glazed on a painted background in shades of gray, brown and black, a terracotta plate depicting a goat’s head bears the prestigious stamp “Original Picasso print” on the back. It is valued at SF20,000 to SF30,000.
The two others feature a bull on a hexagonal terracotta tile (SF15,000 to SF20,000) and a stylized bird on a plate painted in black and white (SF15,000 to SF25,000).
“It’s a lot,” Piguet said of the price.
“But don’t forget that these are works of art in their own right and unique pieces” without replicas, he said.
“If you step back from Picasso’s work and his drawings, which are becoming practically unaffordable today, you have here original works by Picasso that command a reasonable estimate,” Piguet said.
The house is also auctioning two Picasso works “never before seen on the art market,” from the same family friend’s collection: Serenade (1919), an Indian ink and watercolor painting estimated at SF20,000 to SF30,000, and the pencil drawing Famille balzacienne (1962), valued at SF80,000 to SF120,000.
Picasso was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. He created thousands of plates, platters, vases, pitchers and other earthenware utensils in the Madoura ceramics studio.
UNSEEN KLEIN
The auction would is also to include one of French artist Yves Klein’s first blue monochromes, its first appearance on the art market, the auction house said.
From 1959, Monochrome bleu sans titre (IKB 328), estimated at SF100,000 to SF150,000, is painted in International Klein Blue, the deep blue hue developed by the artist himself.
“In daylight, it really has this luminous blue, this completely fascinating Klein blue. And when you put it indoors, you see it as a dark blue, almost midnight blue,” Piguet said.
The piece comes from the collection of Swiss artist couple Muriel and Gerald Minkoff, who liked to exchange their works with their contemporaries.
It was discovered by their successors in their Geneva apartment, Piguet said.
IDENTITY: A sex extortion scandal involving Thai monks has deeply shaken public trust in the clergy, with 11 monks implicated in financial misconduct Reverence for the saffron-robed Buddhist monkhood is deeply woven into Thai society, but a sex extortion scandal has besmirched the clergy and left the devout questioning their faith. Thai police this week arrested a woman accused of bedding at least 11 monks in breach of their vows of celibacy, before blackmailing them with thousands of secretly taken photos of their trysts. The monks are said to have paid nearly US$12 million, funneled out of their monasteries, funded by donations from laypeople hoping to increase their merit and prospects for reincarnation. The scandal provoked outrage over hypocrisy in the monkhood, concern that their status
Trinidad and Tobago declared a new state of emergency on Friday after authorities accused a criminal network operating in prisons across the country of plotting to kill key government officials and attack public institutions. It is the second state of emergency to be declared in the twin-island republic in a matter of months. In December last year, authorities took similar action, citing concerns about gang violence. That state of emergency lasted until mid-April. Police said that smuggled cellphones enabled those involved in the plot to exchange encrypted messages. Months of intelligence gathering led investigators to believe the targets included senior police officers,
A disillusioned Japanese electorate feeling the economic pinch goes to the polls today, as a right-wing party promoting a “Japanese first” agenda gains popularity, with fears over foreigners becoming a major election issue. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the Sanseito Party has widened its appeal ahead of today’s upper house vote — railing against immigration and dragging rhetoric that was once confined to Japan’s political fringes into the mainstream. Polls show the party might only secure 10 to 15 of the 125 seats up for grabs, but it is
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr is to meet US President Donald Trump this week, hoping Manila’s status as a key Asian ally would secure a more favorable trade deal before the deadline on Friday next week. Marcos would be the first Southeast Asian leader to meet Trump in his second term. Trump has already struck trade deals with two of Manila’s regional partners, Vietnam and Indonesia, driving tough bargains in trade talks even with close allies that Washington needs to keep onside in its strategic rivalry with China. “I expect our discussions to focus on security and defense, of course, but also