A vibrant and long-concealed Picasso portrait of his muse and partner Dora Maar has fetched a stunning 32 million euros (about $37 million) at a Paris auction — marking the highest art sale in France this year.
Painted in July 1943, “Bust of a Woman with a Flowered Hat (Dora Maar)” captures Maar in a vivid floral hat, her expression and color palette reflecting both the intensity and the unraveling of her relationship with Pablo Picasso. The piece, part of his celebrated “Woman in a Hat” series, was purchased in 1944 and remained hidden from public view for more than eight decades.
According to The Associated Press, the Drouot auction house in Paris hailed the rediscovery as “a moment of rare significance, revealing for the first time the full radiance of a work long kept secret.”
Auctioneer Christophe Lucien called the final sale “an enormous success,” noting the piece went far above its pre-sale estimate. The final price — 32,012,397 euros after fees — surpassed the 27 million euro hammer price.
“It’s a little piece of the story of love,” Lucien said, describing the bittersweet nature of the painting’s inspiration — Picasso’s stormy relationship with Maar, which was coming to an end at the time the portrait was created.
Lucien added that global interest was immense, saying the painting “is being talked about in all the world capitals with a strong art market, from the United States to Asia, and of course through all the major European markets.”
At a preview earlier in the week, Picasso expert Agnes Sevestre-Barbé marveled at the work’s remarkable condition, saying, “We have a painting that is exactly as it was when it left the studio. It wasn’t varnished, which means we have all its raw material, all of it. It’s a painting where you can feel all the colors, the entire chromatic range.”
She added, “It’s a painting that speaks for itself. You just have to look at it — it’s full of expression, and you can see all of Picasso’s genius.”
Sevestre-Barbé noted that, until now, the work had only been known through a black-and-white photograph. “We couldn’t imagine from this photo that this painting was so colorful, so amazing, really,” she said.
Maar, an artist and photographer herself, was one of Picasso’s most influential muses during a critical period in his career. Their passionate and often tumultuous relationship inspired many of his 1930s and 1940s masterpieces, particularly his wartime depictions of women.
While the sale price of “Bust of a Woman with a Flowered Hat” was far from Picasso’s auction record, it still represents a major event in the art world. The most expensive Picasso painting ever sold remains “Les Femmes d’Alger (Version O)”, which fetched $179.4 million in 2015.
Another portrait of a different muse, “Femme à la montre” (“Woman with a Watch”), depicting Marie-Thérèse Walter, sold for $139.4 million in 2023 — the second-highest Picasso sale in history.
Drouot officials said the rediscovery and sale of the Dora Maar portrait mark “a defining cultural moment,” allowing the world to once again witness one of Picasso’s most emotionally charged works — a painting that had been hidden away, yet preserved in near-pristine condition.
As Sevestre-Barbé put it: “It’s as if time stopped the day it left Picasso’s studio — and today, it finally comes back to life.”
