• Picasso portrait of his mistress sells for $45 million at auction

    Carl Court / AFP - Getty Images

    'Femme assise pres d'une fenetre' (A woman sitting by a window) by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, sold for $45 million at Sotheby's auction house in central London.

    By Mike Collett-White, Reuters

    LONDON -- A Pablo Picasso portrait of his mistress and "golden muse" Marie-Therese Walter sold for $45 million on Tuesday, leading an important Sotheby's auction of impressionist, modern and surrealist art.

    The sale was the first of a series held in London this month by Sotheby's, Christie's and smaller auction houses in the latest barometer of the strength of the high-end art market.

    Prices for the most sought-after works have soared in recent years despite broader economic concerns, with collectors in China, Russia and the Middle East joining more established patrons in Europe and the United States.

    Subtracting the buyer's premium of more than 10 percent, the amount realized for the 1932 Picasso was at the lower end of pre-sale estimates of $39 million-$55 million.

    Nonetheless, it was comfortably the top lot of an evening when a series of works on paper by Austrian artist Egon Schiele arguably stole the limelight.

    Schiele's 1914 "Lovers (Self Portrait With Wally)" fetched $12 million, an auction record for the artist for a work on paper.

    Also sold by the Leopold Museum in Vienna was his "Self Portrait in Green Shirt with Eyes Closed" which sold for $8 million, well above expectations of between $3 million and $4 million.

    The combined tally for Schiele works, sold by the museum to help settle a long-running restitution case involving art deemed to have been stolen by the Nazis in the 1930s, was $22 million.

    'Strongest offering in many years'
    Other lots fared less well, notably Max Beckmann's "Before the Ball - Two Women With a Cat" which went unsold despite pre-sale estimates of $8 million-$13 million.

    Overall the evening brought in $189.4 in sales, within expectations of $161 million-$233 million. Sotheby's said it was their second highest total from an equivalent sale in London.

    "Bidders, both new to the market as well as seasoned buyers, reacted with great enthusiasm, in particular to the selection of impressionist works that were considered to be the strongest offering in many years," said Helena Newman, chair of Sotheby's impressionist and modern art in Europe.

    Christie's, the world's largest auction house, holds its sale in London on Wednesday.

    Related: 

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    Rockwell painting sells for $2.8 million

  • 'Beau Sancy' diamond highlighting 400 years of European royal intrigue goes up for auction

    AFP - Getty Images

    This 35-carat pear-shaped diamond that Marie de Medici wore at her coronation in 1610 will be auctioned on May 15, 2012, in Geneva.

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    A huge diamond coveted by European kings, queens and princes for centuries, used to reinforce alliances between nations and pawned to pay off royal debts goes on sale at Sotheby's in Geneva on May 15.

    The auction house called the "Beau Sancy" gem "one of the most important historic diamonds ever to come to auction," reflecting its part in the fluctuating fortunes of Europe's royal families for more than 400 years.

    The stone, a 35-carat modified "pear double rose cut" diamond belonging to Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia and head of the former ruling dynasty of the German empire, is expected to fetch $2 million to $4 million.

    "It's a stone that appeals to me greatly as a survivor of all those tumultuous events," said David Bennett, chairman of Sotheby's jewelry in Europe and the Middle East.

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    "Stones from royal collections hardly ever appear at auction. In my career this is an absolute one-off," he told Reuters by telephone from New York.

    Bennett, who sold a pink diamond for $46.2 million in 2010 which was a record for any jewel at auction, said estimating the value of a stone like the Beau Sancy was difficult given its rarity.

    “It is the most important and oldest stone to come onto the art market, Phillip Herzog von Wurttemberg, chairman of Sotheby’s Europe told the Local, an English language website in Germany. “It is set very simply in a hook with a loop so it could be put on a necklace.”

    The diamond originated from the mines in India near Golconda and was acquired by Nicolas de Harlay, Lord of Sancy, in Constantinople in the 1500s, explaining its name.

    In 1604 it was bought for 75,000 livres by French King Henry IV as a gift for his wife, Marie de Medici.

    Jealous queen?
    According to Sotheby's, the queen had long coveted the stone, especially after learning that de Harlay had sold a larger diamond called the Sancy and now part of the Louvre Collection to King James I of England.

    Henry IV was assassinated in 1610, and after years of rivalry between Marie and her son King Louis XIII, she was eventually exiled in disgrace.

    She escaped to the Netherlands, and to settle her debts her possessions were sold, including the Beau Sancy which was acquired by Prince Frederick Henry of Orange-Nassau for 80,000 florins, the largest expenditure in the state budget of 1641.

    In the same year, the diamond was used as a sweetener to help seal the wedding of Frederick's son William to Mary Stuart, daughter of King Charles I of England.

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    Following Mary's death in 1660, the Beau Sancy was pawned to settle her debts, but in 1677 the stone re-entered the Treasure of the House of Orange-Nassau following the wedding of William III to Mary II Stuart.

    The couple ascended the throne of England in 1689, meaning the Beau Sancy entered the collection of the Queen of England, but since the couple had no children, the diamond returned to the Netherlands.

    Hidden in crypt
    From there it moved to the Prussian monarchy in 1702, becoming the principal ornament of the new royal crown of Prussia, but its dramatic story did not end there.

    The diamond remained in Berlin after the last king of Prussia fled to exile in November, 1918 at the end of World War I, and at the end of World War II it was transferred to a bricked-up crypt for safe-keeping.

    British troops found the stone and returned it to the estate of House of Prussia, where it has remained ever since.

    The Beau Sancy, which has been shown publicly only four times in the past 50 years, will be exhibited to the public in an international tour before the Geneva auction, according to Sotheby’s.

    Here are the dates and locations of the public exhibitions:

    • Hong Kong -- March 30- April 2
    • New York - April 14-16
    • Rome -  April 19
    • Paris - April 24-25
    • London - April 27-30
    • Zurich - May 2-3
    • Geneva  - May 11-15

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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