Overview
- The canvas, titled “Buste de femme au chapeau à fleurs,” was painted on July 11, 1943 and depicts Dora Maar in a flowered hat.
- The Picasso Administration’s confirmation comes as the painting emerges from decades in private hands after being known only through black‑and‑white images and Brassaï’s studio photographs.
- The work was purchased in 1944 by a prominent French collector and remained in that family’s possession until its consignment as part of an inheritance.
- Auction official Christophe Lucien places the estimate at no less than €8 million and notes the price could go higher at Hôtel Drouot on October 24.
- Picasso expert Agnès Sevestre-Barbé calls the portrait an “extraordinary” milestone that blends naturalism and cubism and was never publicly exhibited outside Picasso’s studio.