Picasso sells for $41.5 million in New York

An erotically charged Picasso oil painting of his mistress alongside tulips and fruit sold Thursday for $41.5 million on an otherwise anemic night for high-end art in New York, AFP reports."Nature morte aux tulipes," painted in 1932, was the star of Sotheby's Impressionist and modern art sale in Manhattan. The pre-sale estimate for the work had been between $35 million and $50 million.The painting depicts the head of Marie-Therese Walter, who was Picasso's lover and famous muse, poised over a suggestive flower arrangement.Its sale was one of the few bright spots for Sotheby's, with 30 percent of lots failing to sell and the total haul of the evening amounting to $163 million -- below the low end of the overall $169-245 million estimate. This followed a similar performance at the Christie's auction on Wednesday.Another of the Marie-Therese series offered by Sotheby's, "Femme a la fenetre (Marie-Therese)," sold for $17.2 million, inside the $15-20 million estimate.Other successes included the $12.1 million paid for "Champ de ble" by Claude Monet, well above the $5-7 million estimate.Paul Cezanne's "Femme nue debout" went for $5.3 million, inside the estimate, and Henry Moore's sculpture "Two piece reclining figure No. 1" sold for $4.7 million, at the high end of its estimate.However, numerous works failed to find buyers, including Picasso's "Plant de tomate," estimated to sell for $10-15 million, and the same artist's "Femme a la robe verte," which was listed at $6-8 million. Cezanne's "La femme a l'hermine," which had been hoped to fetch between $5 million and $7 million, also flopped.On Wednesday, Christie's in New York sold a Monet water lily painting for $43.8 million and saw a painting by Wassily Kandinsky sell for an auction record of $23 million. However, the auction overall was seen as relatively muted, with a third of works not selling.Next week, the rival auction houses hold their contemporary art sales.