Picasso portrait of muse Dora Maar in vivid hat, long hidden from view,
sells for 32 million euros
[October 25, 2025]
By OLEG CETINIC
PARIS (AP) — A vividly hued Picasso portrait of longtime muse and
partner Dora Maar that had remained hidden from public view for more
than eight decades sold Friday at auction for 32 million euros (about
$37 million), including fees — surpassing expectations but far from the
artist’s most expensive work ever auctioned.
Painted in July 1943, "Bust of a Woman with a Flowered Hat (Dora Maar)"
depicts Maar in a brightly colored floral hat. Maar, an artist and
photographer herself, had been Picasso's partner and muse for about
seven years, and the relationship was coming to a painful close. The
work was purchased in 1944 and had not been on the market since,
remaining in the family collection.
The painting, part of Picasso's “Woman in a Hat” series, was auctioned
at the Drouot auction house in Paris. Auctioneer Christophe Lucien
called the final sale, to a buyer in the room, “an enormous success,” as
well as a very emotional moment. He said the price — 32,012,397 euros
after adding buyer fees to the 27-million hammer price — was not only
well above estimates but also the highest paid at auction this year for
any artwork in France.
Lucien called the painting “a little piece of the story of love” —
albeit a bittersweet one — between Picasso and Maar. She was 29 when she
met the artist and quickly became his muse and the model for “Guernica,”
among other works. He later left her for the younger Francoise Gilot and
she died at 89, having lived an increasingly reclusive life.
Theirs “was not a very simple story,” Lucien said, adding that the
painting came at the end of it. "You see that she was containing tears
because she understood that Picasso was leaving her.”
At a preview this week, Picasso specialist Agnès Sevestre-Barbé marveled
at how vivid the portrait has remained.
“We have a painting that is exactly as it was when it left the studio,”
she said. “It wasn’t varnished, which means we have all its raw
material, all of it. It’s a painting where you can feel all the colors,
the entire chromatic range.”
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Art expert Agnes Sevestre-Barbe, right, and auction officer
Christophe Lucien, display a rediscovered Picasso painting "Bust of
a Woman in a Flowery Hat", Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025 in Paris. The
portrait painted in 1943 will be sold at auction Friday in Paris,
was bought in 1944 and shows his partner Dora Maar. (AP Photo/Emma
Da Silva)
 “It’s a painting that speaks for
itself,” she added. “You just have to look at it — it’s full of
expression, and you can see all of Picasso’s genius.”
Previously, Sevestre-Barbé noted, the work had only been seen in a
black-and-white photograph. “We couldn’t imagine from this photo
that this painting was so colorful, so amazing, really.”
Auctioneer Lucien said before the sale that the work was of huge
interest across the globe.
“It's being talked about in all the world capitals with a strong art
market, from the United States to Asia, and of course through all
the major European markets,” he said.
Though selling above expectations, the work was far from the most
expensive Picasso work sold at auction. In 2023, the artist’s famed
“Femme à la montre” (“Woman with a Watch”) — portraying another
muse, Marie-Thérèse Walter — sold for $139.4 million, the second
most valuable Picasso sold at auction. The most valuable was $179.4
million, paid in 2015 for a version of “Les Femmes d'Alger” ("Women
of Algiers").
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Associated Press writer Jocelyn Noveck contributed from New York.
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