$20M-$30M Picasso portrait of muse up for sale

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$20M-$30M Picasso portrait of muse up for sale

2017-09-14 16:38 Last Updated At：16:38

A late Picasso portrait of his paramour Jacqueline Roque is going up for auction for the first time, with an estimated price of up to $30 million, Christie's auction house said Wednesday.

Christie's will offer "Femme accroupie (Jacqueline)" — Crouching Woman (Jacqueline) — at a Nov. 13 sale in New York.

Painted in October 1954, the portrait hung for years in Picasso's private collection and has rarely been seen in public.

Christie's global president, Jussi Pylkkanen, says it is "a museum-quality painting" of "one of Picasso's most elegant muses." Roque was married to the artist from 1961 until his death in 1973.

The painting is one three portraits Picasso painted of Roque in his studio in the south of France on Oct 8, 1954, all showing her crouched with arms around her knees. The boldly colored painting shows the influence of the colorful cutouts of Henri Matisse, who died later that year.

It is being sold from a private collection, and Christie's estimates it will fetch $20 million to $30 million.

The painting will be on public display at Christie's London showroom from Saturday until Tuesday.

Picasso was one of the most acclaimed, and prolific, artists of the 20th century. His 1955 work "Les femmes d'Alger" sold in 2015 for $179 million — a record for a painting at auction.

Egypt reveals restored colossal statues of pharaoh in Luxor

LUXOR, Egypt (AP) — Egypt on Sunday revealed the revamp of two colossal statues of a prominent pharaoh in the southern city of Luxor, the latest in the government’s archaeological events that aim at drawing more tourists to the country.

The giant alabaster statues, known as the Colossi of Memnon, were reassembled in a renovation project that lasted about two decades. They represent Amenhotep III, who ruled ancient Egypt about 3,400 years ago.

“Today we are celebrating, actually, the finishing and the erecting of these two colossal statues,” Mohamed Ismail, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, told The Associated Press ahead of the ceremony.

Ismail said the colossi are of great significance to Luxor, a city known for its ancient temples and other antiquities. They’re also an attempt to “revive how this funerary temple of king Amenhotep III looked like a long time ago,” Ismail said.

Amenhotep III, one of the most prominent pharaohs, ruled during the 500 years of the New Kingdom, which was the most prosperous time for ancient Egypt. The pharaoh, whose mummy is showcased at a Cairo museum, ruled between 1390–1353 BC, a peaceful period known for its prosperity and great construction, including his mortuary temple, where the Colossi of Memnon are located, and another temple, Soleb, in Nubia.

The colossi were toppled by a strong earthquake in about 1200 BC that also destroyed Amenhotep III’s funerary temple, said Mohamed Ismail, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

They were fragmented and partly quarried away, with their pedestals dispersed. Some of their blocks were reused in the Karnak temple, but archaeologists brought them back to rebuild the colossi, according to the Antiquities Ministry.

In late 1990s, an Egyptian German mission, chaired by German Egyptologist Hourig Sourouzian, began working in the temple area, including the assembly and renovation of the colossi.

“This project has in mind … to save the last remains of a once-prestigious temple,” she said.

The statues show Amenhotep III seated with hands resting on his thighs, with their faces looking eastward toward the Nile and the rising sun. They wear the nemes headdress surmounted by the double crowns and the pleated royal kilt, which symbolizes the pharaoh’s divine rule.

Two other small statues on the pharaoh’s feet depict his wife, Tiye.

The colossi — 14.5 meters (48 feet) and 13.6 meters (45 feet) respectively — preside over the entrance of the king’s temple on the western bank of the Nile. The 35-hectare (86-acre) complex is believed to be the largest and richest temple in Egypt and is usually compared to the temple of Karnak, also in Luxor.

The colossi were hewn in Egyptian alabaster from the quarries of Hatnub, in Middle Egypt. They were fixed on large pedestals with inscriptions showing the name of the temple, as well as the quarry.

Unlike other monumental sculptures of ancient Egypt, the colossi were partly compiled with pieces sculpted separately, which were fixed into each statue’s main monolithic alabaster core, the ministry said.

Sunday’s unveiling in Luxor came just six weeks after the inauguration of the long-delayed Grand Egyptian Museum, the centerpiece of the government’s bid to boost the country’s tourism industry and bring cash into the troubled economy. The mega project is located near the famed Giza Pyramids and the Sphinx.

The tourism sector, which depends heavily on Egypt’s rich pharaonic artifacts, has suffered during years of political turmoil and violence following the 2011 uprising. In recent years, the sector has started to recover after the coronavirus pandemic and amid Russia’s war on Ukraine — both countries are major sources of tourists visiting Egypt.

“This site is going to be a point of interest for years to come,” said Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy, who attended the unveiling ceremony. “There are always new things happening in Luxor.”

A record number of about 15.7 million tourists visited Egypt in 2024, contributing about 8% of the country’s GDP, according to official figures.

Fathy, the minister,has said about 18 million tourists are expected to visit the country this year, with authorities hoping for 30 million visitors annually by 2032.

Magdy reported from Cairo.