Paris, Jun 7 (IANS/EFE): Two Pablo Picasso paintings belonging to his granddaughter Marina's personal collection sold for more than 5 million euros ($6.6 million) at an auction here Thursday.
Sotheby's, which included the works as part of a batch of impressionist and modern art, said "Palette et tête de taureau" (Palette and Bull Head), painted in December 1938, fetched 1.4 million euros ($1.8 million), in line with the estimated price.
The second work, "Femme assise en robe grise" (Sitting Woman in a Gray Dress), painted in 1943, sold for more than 3.8 million euros ($5.03 million), or above the estimated price range.
The auction marked the first time Marina Picasso had put works from her personal collection up for sale and, according to Parisian daily Le Figaro, the proceeds will be donated to organisations that assist disadvantaged youth.
"I plan to sell more in the future to fully devote myself to humanitarian endeavours," she told the newspaper. "Being Picasso's granddaughter is not a profession. Besides, I no longer have any interest in being seen as his granddaughter. No interest at all."
Marina, who was 22 when the artist died in 1973, said she spent many years freeing herself from what she calls the Picasso "curse".
She told Le Figaro that she was now able to look back without anger at the master painter's list of "victims".
"(His muse) Dora Maar, who died in poverty refusing to sell any of his paintings. (His lover) Marie-Therese Walter, who committed suicide. Olga, my grandmother, the part of Picasso I most loved, star of (Sergei) Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, who gave up everything for him and ended her life as a laughingstock. I escaped that curse. That's been my struggle."