Picasso’s leaving Las Vegas for auction block

Around 11 Picasso paintings and works by the Spanish artist will be auctioned in October, as the casino and hotel group MGM Resorts wants to further diversify its extensive art collection.

The auction will take place on October 23 at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, where the works were exhibited, MGM Resorts and Sotheby’s announced on Wednesday.

The sale could raise around $ 100 million and is considered the most valuable Picasso auction ever held.

“We are committed to creating an even broader collection that maintains the breadth of our existing portfolio while empowering artists from underrepresented communities,” said Ari Kastrati, chief hospitality officer at MGM Resorts, in a statement.

The MGM Resorts Fine Arts Collection includes approximately 900 works by 200 artists, including modern works by Bob Dylan and David Hockney, on display in their hotels around the world.

The collection was launched more than 20 years ago by real estate developer Steve Wynn, former owner of Bellagio and former managing director of Wynn Resorts.

Picasso’s works up for auction include five paintings, some of which were exhibited for years in the Bellagio’s Picasso fine dining restaurant. The restaurant will continue to show 12 other Picasso works.

The artist’s 1938 painting “Femme au beret rouge-orange” by his lover and muse Marie-Therese Walter is expected to sell for US $ 20 to 30 million.

The large-format portraits “Homme et Enfant” and “Buste d’homme” have pre-sale estimates of up to $ 30 million and $ 15 million, respectively.

As part of a widespread cultural settlement in 2020 on racism at all levels of American society, museums and art galleries are working to diversify their collections and include more women and people of color in their staff.

A 2019 study published by the Public Library of Science of 18 of the leading U.S. museums found that 85 percent of the artists on display are white and 87 percent are men.

MGM Resorts said its collection is already diverse, but plans to show more works by women, LGBTQ artists, people of color and people with disabilities.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Richard Chang)