Picasso's `Garcon a la Pipe' May Fetch $70 Million (Correct)

(Corrects dateline.)

April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Pablo Picasso's 1905 oil painting of a boy in the blue worker's suit with a pipe in his hand may bring a record $70 million or more when it is auctioned next week at Sotheby's Holdings Inc.

``Garcon a la Pipe,'' part of Sotheby's May sales, may become the most expensive Picasso ever sold at auction, Charles Moffett, 58, co-chairman of Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern department, said in an interview. The nonprofit Greentree Foundation, established by John Hay and Betsey Cushing Whitney, is selling the work.

Collectors such as the foundation are eager to convert some of their holdings into cash after three years of record-breaking auctions, Moffett said. New York's fall fine-art sales in November brought in $482.3 million, surpassing previous-year sales by 20 percent and setting more than three dozen artist records.

``You're finally getting some of this discretionary selling that we've been hoping for a long time,'' said auction analyst George Sutton, 36, of Minneapolis-based Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC. ``The old adage that death, divorce and debt are the three things that precipitate sales doesn't seem to be quite as true now.''

The lure of a seller's market may also be attracting inferior work, Bob Monk, 53, director of the Gagosian Gallery on Madison Avenue, said after examining catalogs for the postwar and contemporary sales. ``It's not bringing out the best stuff,'' Monk said. ``There are people out there looking for work, so maybe this B and C work will find homes.''

Receptive Market

The Picasso is being offered as part of a May 5 sale of 34 paintings from a collection amassed by John Hay Whitney, the philanthropist, diplomat and publisher of the New York Herald Tribune, who died in 1982 at age 77. His wife, Betsey Cushing, left the works to the foundation when she died at age 89 in 1998.

``There was no pressure'' to sell, said Richard Schaffer, 57, president of the Greentree Foundation. ``It seemed like a reasonable time given what we hope will be a receptive art market.'' The proceeds will be used to renovate the 400-acre Whitney estate in Manhasset, New York, which hosts international meetings to promote peace, Schaeffer said.

Sellers in May also include New York's Museum of Modern Art, the Anderson Fine Arts Center in Anderson, Indiana, and German fashion designer Wolfgang Joop, 59. Another is the Fran and Ray Stark Foundation, established by Ray Stark, the producer of such films as ``The Night of the Iguana'' and ``Annie,'' who died in January at 88.

``Some people want to capitalize and sell their assets as close to the top of the market as possible,'' Moffett said. ``Others people want to refine their collections so they trade out of some artists and into others.''

May 4 Sale

New York's spring auction season begins May 4 with a sale of Impressionist and Modern art at Christie's International Plc and continues May 5 and 6 with Sotheby's Whitney sale and Impressionist and Modern works from various owners. The following week, both auctioneers offer postwar and contemporary art, as does Phillips, de Pury & Co.

Tobias Meyer, 41, worldwide head of contemporary art at Sotheby's, said almost everything he is selling May 12 came from discretionary sellers. In Sotheby's private viewing room, he pointed out a number of works offered this season because their owners expect prices to soar.

A Jasper Johns watercolor on paper, ``Corpse and Mirror,'' is estimated by Sotheby's at $2 million to $3 million. Meyer said the seller, whom he wouldn't name, told him he wants to sell after owning the painting for 12 years because, ``Now is the moment.''

Monk of the Gagosian Gallery said the Johns work is ``a seminal piece from an era when Johns started to focus on abstract work'' -- meaning ``the estimate is warranted.''

Lesser Works

Amy Cappellazzo, 36, international co-head of Christie's postwar and contemporary art department, agreed with Monk that sellers also are bringing lesser works forward and ``wanting big prices'' for them.

``More and more people are looking at the art on their walls as an asset class, and people can start to see dollar signs if the market is strong,'' Cappellazzo said.

The Christie's contemporary art sale features a number of works estimated above $1 million, including premiere examples by Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter and Jackson Pollock.

The Pollock, ``Number 12, 1949,'' estimated at $5 million to $7 million, is one of nine artworks being sold by New York's Museum of Modern Art to reinvest in ``works of greater importance,'' according to a statement by chief curator John Elderfield, 61.

Modigliani

MoMA's ``Il Grande Metafisico,'' a 1917 oil by Giorgio De Chirico, estimated at $7 million to $10 million, is a highlight of Christie's May 4 Impressionist and Modern sale. The auctioneer also has a 1919 Amedeo Modigliani, ``Portrait de Roger Dutilleul,'' for $6 million to $8 million and an abstract Joan Miro of 1947, ``Le Rouge, Le Bleu, Le Bel Espoir,'' for $4 million to $6 million.

Prices expected at Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern sale are higher, with several estimated at more than $10 million. Besides the $70 million Picasso, Sotheby's is auctioning an Edouard Manet horseracing scene, ``Les Courses Au Bois De Boulogne,'' for $20 million to $30 million.

It also is offering a 40-inch-by-79-inch Claude Monet water lily painting, ``Le Bassin Aux Nympheas,'' from the Stark Foundation for $9 million to $12 million and Picasso's 1932 depiction of a day at the beach, ``Le Sauvetage,'' from a private European collection, for $10 million to $15 million.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nina Siegal in New York newsroom nsiegal@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 28, 2004 03:16 EDT