Forgotten Picasso portrait of Dora Maar sells for $37 mn

AFP | Paris

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A previously unknown portrait by Pablo Picasso of French artist Dora Maar -- the painter's bestknown muse -- sold for 32 million euros ($37 million) in Paris on Friday, auction house Drouot told AFP. Entitled "Bust of a Woman With a Flowery Hat", the oil portrait of photographer, painter and poet Maar is a riot of colours and thick, black lines.

It was "sold to a foreign buyer present in the room", the auction house said. The Spanish master painted it on July 11, 1943 and it was acquired in August 1944 by a private French collector, grandfather of the former anonymous owners. The sale far outstripped the reserve price of eight million euros ($9.5 million).