For the first time in the U.K., the most expensive painting in the world, Picasso’s Nude, Green Leaves and Bust painting is making its public debut at the Tate Modern in London, reports the Guardian.
Sold for a record $106 million last May to an anonymous bidder at Christie’s in New York, the work was created in a single day in 1932 and is seen as a major representation of the famous Spanish painter’s work.
The painting last changed hands in 1951 for $19,800, and had only been seen publicly once in 1961 in honor of the artist’s 80th birthday.
"This is an outstanding painting by Picasso and I am delighted that through the generosity of the lender we are able to bring it to the British public for the first time," Tate’s director, Sir Nicholas Serota, welcomed the loan.
The painting is one of a sequence of his mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter, a young woman the artist first encountered in 1927 when she was 17. She recalled that he approached her as a she was leaving a Paris Metro station, telling her, “ I am Picasso! You and I are going to do great things together.”