11 Picasso works fetch $109 million

LAS VEGAS — Eleven Pablo Picasso artworks have been sold for a combined $109 million in a Las Vegas auction coinciding with the artist’s 140th birthday.

The nine paintings and two ceramic pieces had been displayed in the Picasso restaurant at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art for more than two decades until owner MGM Resorts decided to sell them.

The Saturday event was organized by Sotheby’s and marked the first time the famed auction house staged an evening marquee sale in North America outside its New York salesroom. It featured Picasso artworks from 1917 to 1969.

Auction officials said Picasso’s 1938 portrait of his muse Marie-Therese Walter entitled “Femme au beret rouge-orange” (“Woman in a reddish-orange hat”) sold for $40.5 million after a bidding battle, well above estimates of $20 million to $30 million.