$85m portrait helps Picasso eclipse Van Gogh as art’s biggest name

Pablo Picasso has become the ultimate luxury brand. On May 3 at Sotheby’s New York Picasso’s rare and iconic 1941 portrait, Dora Maar au chat, became the world’s second most expensive painting when it sold for $85m (£48.3m) to a mystery buyer in the room, widely presumed to be representing a Russian oligarch.

Estimated at $50m-70m and contested by at least five bidders, the Dora Maar portrait fell just $8m s…

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