A BARGAIN PICASSO

Picasso frescoes for sale (with a castle thrown in) for £6.9 million

In 2015, a 1955 Picasso painting, Les Femmes d’Alger, sold for a record-breaking sum of £115 million ($162 million, €147 million). Those with a somewhat lower budget, though, can now acquire a whole series of the artist’s works for just £6.9 million ($9.9 million, €8.9 million) if they buy a château in the south of France.

On the open market for the first time in fifty years, Château de Castille at Uzès in Provence extends to some 8,611 square feet and features 4 reception rooms, 8 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms. The property – which dates to 1362 and which was most recently decorated by the celebrated American designer Dick Dumas – has most unusual extra in that it comes with five frescoes painted by Picasso in 1962 and 1963 on its garden walls. They were painted for the British art collector Douglas Cooper – who owned the château between 1950 and his death in 1984 – and are classified as historic monuments by the French state.

Of the 4.94-acre property, a representative for Sotheby’s International Realty commented:

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire not only a highly important historic property, but an important piece of art and of art history at the same time”.