‘Qatar royal family did not buy Picasso’s ‘Les Femmes d`Alger’

‘Qatar royal family did not buy Picasso’s ‘Les Femmes d`Alger’. May. 27, 2015 07:42. zsh75@donga.com.

An auction company said that the buyer of “Les Femmes d’Alger,” an oil painting that was sold for the highest price ever among the paintings by Pablo Picasso, is not the royal family of Qatar.

Christy’s Auction in New York denied news reports that the successful bidder for the oil painting that was sold for 179.36 million U.S. dollars at an auction held on May 11 was Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, former prime minister of Qatar. The auction company stopped short of identifying who the actual successful bidder was. However, Christy’s said would-be buyers from 35 countries participated in the auction, and collectors from Europe and Asia were effectively competing with U.S. collectors in the bid.

Earlier, Western news outlets, including the New York Post and the Telegraph, reported that the painting work by Picasso had been sold to former Prime Minister Al Thani.

The Qatari royal family was singled out as the buyer of “Nafea Faa Ipoipo: When Will You Marry” by Paul Gauguin that was sold for 300 million dollars in trading of artworks, the highest price for an artwork bought by an individual, in February this year, and “Lullaby Spring” by British artist Damien Hirst, and “The Card Players” by Paul Cezanne. There is growing discontent among the European artist community over the situation wherein its national treasure-grade artworks are being sold for oil money from the Middle East.