Pablo Picasso's "Woman sitting by a window (Marie-Therese)" sold Thursday for $103.4 million at Christie's in New York, the auction house said.

The painting, completed in 1932, was sold for $90 million, which rose to $103.4 million when fees and commissions were added, after 19 minutes of bidding, Christie's said.

The sale confirms the vitality of the art market despite the Covid-19 pandemic -- but also the special status of Picasso, who was born in 1881 and died in 1973.

The same painting was acquired only eight years ago at a London sale for 28.6 million pounds, or about $44.8 million, less than half the price offered Thursday.

The painting 'Femme assise près d'une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse)' is the fifth one by Pablo Picasso to sell for more than $100 million
The painting 'Femme assise près d'une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse)' is the fifth one by Pablo Picasso to sell for more than $100 million AFP / DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS

Five works by the Spanish painter have now crossed the symbolic threshold of $100 million.

Even before this sale, he was already alone at the top of this very exclusive club with four paintings, including "Women of Algiers," which holds the record for a Picasso, at $179.4 million in 2015.

This is the first time in two years that a work has broken the $100 million mark, since a copy of Claude Monet's "Meules" series reached $110.7 million at Sotheby's, also in New York.

On Tuesday, the painting "In This Case" by the American painter Jean-Michel Basquiat sold for $93.1 million at Christie's in the first of the major spring sales, one of the two most important events in the auction world.

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