NEW YORK, United States (AFP)— Pablo Picasso’s “Woman sitting by a window (Marie-Therese)” sold Thursday for US$103.4 million at Christie’s in New York, the auction house said.

The painting, completed in 1932, was sold for US$90 million, which rose to US$103.4 million when fees and commissions were added, after 19 minutes of bidding, Christie’s said.

The sale confirms the vitality of the art market despite the COVID-19 pandemic — but also the special status of Picasso, who was born in 1881 and died in 1973. 

The same painting was acquired only eight years ago at a London sale for 28.6 million pounds, or about US$44.8 million, less than half the price offered Thursday. 

Five works by the Spanish painter have now crossed the symbolic threshold of US$100 million. 

Even before this sale, he was already alone at the top of this very exclusive club with four paintings, including “Women of Algiers,” which holds the record for a Picasso, at US$179.4 million in 2015. 

This is the first time in two years that a work has broken the US$100 million mark, since a copy of Claude Monet’s “Meules” series reached US$110.7 million at Sotheby’s, also in New York. 

On Tuesday, the painting “In This Case” by the American painter Jean-Michel Basquiat sold for US$93.1 million at Christie’s in the first of the major spring sales, one of the two most important events in the auction world.