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On October 24, 2025, a newly rediscovered Pablo Picasso painting of Dora Maar was sold for €32.01 million (about $37.15 million) by Lucien Paris. The final price tag was almost four times higher than the Parisian auction house’s original estimate, which sat at €8 million (about $9.45 million).
Titled Buste de femme au chapeau à fleurs (Dora Maar), the painting is one of many featuring the eponymous Dora Maar, a French-Croatian photographer, painter, and Picasso’s lover of nine years. The artist originally completed the portrait in 1943, after which point it was quickly purchased by a collector in 1944. Before last month’s auction, Buste de femme had been hidden from the public and held in that private collection for more than 80 years. Its existence was at first only known from a black-and-white photograph featured in the Cahiers d’art art journal, snapped shortly before it was sold. Brassaï is also thought to have photographed the painting between late April and early May 1944.
“It is not only a milestone in the history of art, but also in the private life of Picasso,” auctioneer Christope Lucien told The Guardian in a recent interview. “It’s a refreshing portrait of Dora Maar, exceptional and full of emotion. Discovering it is a big moment in our lives as experts.”
In the days leading up to the auction, which was held at Hôtel Drouot in Paris, Buste de femme was exhibited for the public to see for the first time in nearly a century. Approximately 18 bidders from Europe, Asia, and the United States competed for the painting during the auction itself, before an international collector in the room offered the winning bid of €32.01 million. The sale stands as France’s highest auction result of the year and as the country’s second-highest price achieved for a Picasso work, according to Lucien.
Expectations for Buste de femme might have been surpassed, but the work’s final price still pales in comparison to Picasso’s auction history. In 2015, the artist’s iconic Les Femmes d’Alger (Version “O”) sold for $179.4 million at Christie’s New York, standing as the world’s most expensive Picasso work sold at auction. In 2023, Femme à la montre also set records as the second most valuable Picasso, snagging $139.4 million.
To learn more about the auction, visit the Lucien Paris website.
After being hidden in a private collection for more than 80 years, Pablo Picasso’s 1943 portrait of his muse Dora Maar has been sold at auction for $37 million.
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Sources: Picasso portrait of muse Dora Maar in vivid hat, long hidden from view, sells for 32 million euros; Little-Known Picasso Portrait of Dora Maar Sells for $37 M., Quadruple Its Estimate; Pablo Picasso’s long-hidden portrait of Dora Maar sells for $37 million in Paris
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