L'Aubade by Pablo Picasso is seen on display at Sotheby's during a preview of their Impressionist and Modern Art sale in New York.
Long-time Toronto art collector Samuel Sarick has been identified as the consignor of the monumental Pablo Picasso painting that Sotheby's New York sold Wednesday for more than $23-million (U.S.) – a record for a late-period Picasso sold at auction.
Sources told The Globe and Mail Thursday that Mr. Sarick, who turned 81 on Tuesday, and his wife, Esther, who turns 74 on Sunday, were the owners of L'Aubade, a 1967 Picasso painting of a reclining nude female and a male flute player. According to Sotheby's records, the Saricks purchased the 130.1-cm-by-195-cm oil at auction in April, 1979 in London for just over $75,000 (U.S.).
The painting went into Sotheby's Wednesday auction with a pre-sale estimate of $18-million to $25-million – a reflection of the increased attention being paid by critics and art lovers to the work the Spanish-French master did in the 10 years before his death, at 92 in 1973. The old auction record for a late-period Picasso, $18-million, was set in spring of 2010.
Mr. Sarick, a real-estate/construction businessman and financier, has been an art collector since the mid-1960s. He's perhaps most famous for collecting Inuit, Chinese and African art. A member of the board of trustees of the Art Gallery of Ontario since 1997, he and his wife have either donated or lent more than 3,000 individual pieces to the AGO. L'Aubade was shown at the gallery in the summer and fall of 1988 as part of exhibition titled Picasso at Large in Toronto Collections.
Calls to Mr. Sarick's business Thursday were forwarded to him but not returned by press time.