Christie's Sells Picasso for $51.2M

Mixed news for the world of art today out of London: A 1903 Picasso (Portrait d'Angel Fernandez de Soto) sold for a healthy $51.2 million, but 16 of 62 paintings went unsold at Christie's major auction. The big non-seller was a Monet waterlily painting (Nympheas) expected to fetch $30 million. Dealers tell the Wall Street Journal that buyers remain wary and aren't convinced the art market has fully recovered.

The Guardian sums up the auction in a fairly negative tone: "It was Europe's most valuable ever art auction and the script had been prepared for an evening of supernova prices. But the world's richest art buyers refused to follow it. Last night they might even have been described as … prudent." (More Christie's stories.)