Picasso Portraits - Collectors Pay Huge Prices For Pablo Paintings

Pablo Picasso portraits and paintings command huge amounts of money at art auctions. In fact, there is only one other painter, Vincent van Gogh, whose paintings sold for higher prices than Picasso's. At one time, the highest price paid for a painting ever was for van Gogh's Portrait of Dr. Gachet, which sold at auction for $82.5 million in 1990.

A self portrait by the same artist sold for $71.5 million in 1998. However, van Gogh, although he was prolific just like Picasso was, died at the young age of 37, and only 870 paintings of his exist. Also, in recent years Picasso's works have broken the record for the highest price ever paid for a painting.

Picasso portraits have spawned almost an industry all of its own. In the year 2000, over 30 Picasso paintings were auctioned and brought in over $150 million dollars. This is, of course, only public sales. Any sales done by private galleries or art dealers are not counted. Nor are Picasso's other works, such as sketches, tapestries, lithographs and other media.

Part of the reason for this massive buying frenzy is that Picasso was a key figure in the shift towards a new form of art. He co-founded Cubism in 1907 along with Georges Braque. Cubism presented an entirely new way of representing reality. Figures were taken apart and then pieced back together in pieces, combining various angles to make the finished work.