World's most expensive painting goes on display
7th March 2011
The world's most expensive painting is going on display at the Tate Modern in London today, almost a year after being sold at auction for GBP 65.5 million.
Picasso's Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, based on his muse Marie-Therese Walter and painted in 1932, was bought by an anonymous bidder at Christie's in New York last May, breaking the previous record held by Giacometti's Walking Man I.
Tate director Nicholas Serota said the 'outstanding painting' has been borrowed from the private collector and will be a precursor to the Picasso exhibition at Tate Britain next year.
'I am delighted that, through the generosity of the lender, we are able to bring it to the British public for the first time,' he explained.
The painting is one of a series of Walter, created by the artist at Boisgeloup, Normandy, with Mr Serota describing them as 'amongst his greatest achievements of the inter-war period'.
Last month, La Lecture, another Picasso work depicting Walter, sold for GBP 25 million at Sotheby's auction house in London.