ELEVEN Picasso paintings and other works that helped turn U.S. Las Vegas into an unlikely destination for art were sold at auction Saturday for more than US$100 million.

The Sotheby’s auction was held at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas, where the works had been on display for years, and took place two days before the 140th birthday of the Spanish artist Oct. 25.

Five of the paintings had hung on the walls of the Bellagio’s fine dining restaurant, Picasso. The restaurant will continue to display 12 other Picasso works.

The highest price was fetched by the 1938 painting “Femme au beret rouge-orange” of Picasso’s lover and muse Marie-Therese Walter, which sold for US$40.5 million, some US$10 million over the high presale estimate.

The large-scale portraits “Homme et Enfant” and “Buste d’homme” sold for US$24.4 million and US$9.5 million respectively, while smaller works on ceramic, like “Le Dejeuner sur l’herbe” which sold for US$2.1 million, went for three or four times their presale estimate.

The buyers’ names were not disclosed.

Saturday’s sale was part of a bid by casino and hotel group MGM Resorts to further diversify its vast collection to include more art from women, people of color and emerging nations as well as from LGBTQ artists and artists with disabilities.

American museums and art galleries have been working to broaden their collections in the wake of the widespread cultural reckoning in 2020 over racism at all levels of U.S. society.

(SD-Agencies)