Pablo Picasso is undoubtedly the most brilliant and inventive artist of the 20th century, with an abundant and protean production. The logical consequence of this position is that rich collectors are snapping up his works and prices are soaring. Two examples demonstrate this. On November 8, Sotheby’s offered for sale Woman with watch, a 1932 painting depicting his muse Marie-Thérèse Walter. He had no trouble finding a buyer for $139.3 million. In 2015, the artist’s most expensive painting, Women in Algiers, had sold for $179.4 million.
These are record prices for exceptional paintings. But more common works by the master easily sell for 4 to 10 million euros. Suffice to say that without wealth, you will never own a Picasso painting. Nothing is lost though because you can buy one of his prints.
Of the 50,000 works – paintings, drawings, sculptures, ceramics, etc. – that he produced, there are around 30,000 original engravings and lithographs. They are regularly found at auctions and modern art galleries. Prices vary between 4,000 euros and more than 100,000 euros, with the most expensive prints, known as the “Vollard Suite”, being made up of around a hundred proofs made for the art dealer Ambroise Vollard. Whatever their purchase price, these prints follow the constantly ascending curve of Picasso’s paintings. It is therefore an excellent investment-pleasure which will increase in value over time.