An abstract painting by Picasso has sold in Sydney Machu Picchu 'found and looted' earlier than thought ...
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David Hicks gag order expires ... for $6.9m AUS (Ј3.32m), making it the most expensive piece of art sold at auction in Australia.
The 1954 painting, Sylvette - featuring model and muse Sylvette David - sold to an anonymous overseas phone bidder at the Deutscher-Menzies Galleries.
One of 40 works inspired by David, it was painted by Picasso when he was 73.
The sale broke the previous record of $3.48m AUS (Ј1.67m), set in 2007, for a work by Australia's Brett Whiteley.
"Sydney is the New York of the art market in the southern hemisphere," said Deutscher-Menzies Galleries spokeswoman Marie Geissler.
'Historic day'
Rodney Menzies, the director of the gallery, bought the Picasso two years ago for $4.6m (Ј2.2m).
"It's a historic day for Australia in the sense that a very significant international picture by the greatest artist of the 20th Century was sold at an Australian auction for a record price," Mr Menzies told Agence France Presse.
Picasso came across Sylvette David, his 17-year-old neighbour, while living in the south of France.
Her tall frame and long, blond ponytail fascinated the Spanish cubist painter, who died in 1973.
(BBC)
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