13 Picassos sold in two days, and one firm laps them all up

New York

AN INTERNATIONAL art advisory firm went on a Picasso shopping spree, dropping US$155 million on at least 13 works in two days.

Gurr Johns, which buys and sells on behalf of clients, won four pieces by the Spanish artist, totalling £73.8 million (S$133 million) at Sotheby's on Wednesday, according to the auction house. One day earlier, the company won at least nine other Picasso works at Christie's, according to Baer Faxt, an art industry newsletter, to the tune of £38.9 million.

The leading work of the week was a 1937 portrait of Picasso's young muse and lover Marie-Therese Walter that fetched £49.8 million pounds, surpassing the presale estimate, at Sotheby's. The least expensive was Citron et verre, a 1922 still life starring a lemon, that sold for £392,750 at C…