Executed in a rare period when he stopped painting and at a time when his marriage was in trouble and his young mistress pregnant, it seems to prefigure the emotional turmoil found in his famous monumental canvas Guernica, which he painted two years later and used many of the same motifs.
La Minotauromachie is also particularly scarce. Unusually among Picasso prints, the artist apparently never intended to produce it as a completed edition and distribute it commercially.
Instead only around 50 copies were printed (there is some confusion as to the actual number) and about 25 of them remained in the artist's possession when he died.
So, when one of these latter prints appeared at Sotheby's (25/20/12% buyer's premium) in London on September 16, considerable interest arose, particularly as nearly all recorded examples are now tied up in either public or well-established private collections.
The 19½ x 2ft 3in (50 x 69cm) etching was an impression in the print's final (seventh) state and, in good condition, it was estimated at £400,000-600,000.
It attracted strong competition and sold to an anonymous buyer at £1.1m hammer - the joint highest auction price ever for a print along with two Edvard Munch (1863-1944) prints: Madonna, which sold at Bonhams in London in July, and Vampire II, which sold at Oslo saleroom Grev Wedels Plass Auksjoner in November 2007 for 11.8m Norwegian Kroner.
By Alex Capon
