Picasso Ceramics

The UK Telegraph has an interesting article on the growing interest and prices of Picasso designed ceramics.  A recent sale included 170 pieces and brought strong interest and buying with the sale totaling $ 2.53 million.  Prices ranged from a low of about $1,800.00 to a high of $115,500.00.

Picasso created the ceramics with the Madoura pottery on the French Riviera and created over 600 designs for ceramics with limited runs of 25-500.

The Telegraph reports on the sale

A collection of ceramics by Pablo Picasso has sold at auction for more than £1.5million pounds, as buyers flocked to own work by the renowned artist for as little as £1,000.

The range of 170 pieces, including plates, vase, bowls, jugs and tiles, sold for prices between £1,063 for a black and white print, to £68,500 for a painted vase.

The Sotheby’s sale made a total of £1,502,188, with buyers reported to be “clamouring” to own a work by Picasso.

Each piece was created during the last decades of his life, in collaboration with the Madoura pottery on the French Riviera.

They were originally estimated to sell for as little as £400, with 18 of the lots priced under £800.

In the event, the top ten lots all went for more than £26,000, with auctioneers saying Picasso would be “delighted” to learn his works were now so widely available.

The price of the ceramics are a noticeable contrast to Picasso’s better-known works, with his Nude, Green Leaves and Bust selling for £70million in 2010. The price made it then the most expensive painting ever sold at auction.

The ceramics are made more affordable after being produced in runs of up to 500. While Picasso painted the designs, he left the actual pottery-making to others after striking up a friendship with Madoura owners Georges and Suzanne Ramié.

He ended up spending 24 years at the pottery, producing 633 designs in limited editions ranging from 25 to 500. He died in 1973.

Séverine Nackers, head of prints & multiples, Sotheby’s Europe, said: “Today’s sale demonstrates that owning a ‘Picasso’ is an achievable pursuit.

“Buyers clamoured for these inventive and playful works. The auction was 98.3 per cent sold by lot, with almost 85 per cent of lots sold achieving prices above their high estimates. The £1.5 million total achieved exceeded the pre-sale high estimate of £1.1 million.

“Picasso imagined making his art more widely available to the everyman. Today, he would have delighted in the fact that this was made possible.”

Source: The Telegraph