Business | Peak Pablo

The market for Picassos may be about to turn

After a long bull run, the man and the artist are being re-evaluated

The painting " Maya" by Spanish painter Pablo Picasso in 1938, is on display during a media preview of Sotheby's auction, in London, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023. The piece has an estimated price of 12-18 million pounds and will go on auction on March 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung) — Image: AP

Mar 30th 2023

Artists rarely create more than 5,000 works over a lifetime. Pablo Picasso, who died on April 8th 1973 at the age of 91, produced 25,000. Between 1950 and 2021 more than 1,500 notable Picassos were sold at auction in America and Britain, compared with 798 by the next-most-prolific artist, Andy Warhol, according to Sotheby’s Mei Moses, the art-data arm of the auction house. In its recent London sales, Sotheby’s offered a sculpture, an illustrated book, a cubist bronze cast, some gravure prints and several drawings and paintings, all by Picasso. Prices ranged from under £5,000 ($6,200) to more than £18m.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Peak Pablo”