Picasso Surrealist Masterpiece 'La Fenetre Ouverte' Set for 1st Auction

MOSCOW, (Sputnik) - Pablo Picasso's painting "La fenetre ouverte" (the Open Window) will be offered at auction for the first time ever with an estimated price ranging from 14 to 24 million pounds ($19 to 32 million), Christie's auction house revealed on Friday.

"Presented at auction for the first time, 'La fenetre ouverte' is a seminal work from Pablo Picasso's Surrealist period. The painting will highlight Christie's 21st edition of The Art of the Surreal Evening Sale, a key element of the [20th/21st Century] Shanghai to London series of auctions, which will take place on 1 March 2022," Christie's said in a press release.

Painted by Picasso on 22 November 1929, the painting depicts a scene in a studio and represents one of a series of Atelier works that Picasso began around 1926, "richly symbolic and radically constructed paintings that reveal the multi-faceted interests of the artist at this time."

Other works in the series are exhibited in museums, including New York's Museum of Modern Art and the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris.

"Held in the same European collection for half a century, this powerful and explosively colored painting from the highpoint of Picasso's Surrealist period," Christie's Deputy Chairman Olivier Camu said. "We are thrilled to present [the painting] to the market for the first time as a major highlight of the 21st edition of The Art of the Surreal Evening Sale."

In May 2021, Christie's auctioned another Picasso's surrealist painting of that period "Femme assise pres d'une fenetre" for $103.4 million after 19 minutes of bidding.