AUCTION RECORDS BROKEN IN LONDON: A PICASSO SOLD FOR £55,000.

SOLD FOR L5S,000: " LA BELLE HOLLANDAISE," BY PICASSO, DATED 1905: THE HIGHEST PRICE EVER PAID AT AN AUCTION FOR THE WORK OP A LIVING ARTIST. (Chalk, gouache and ill on board: 301 by 261 Ins.)

SOLD FOR £7500: "OPHELIE," BY REDON: THE PREVIOUS OWNER HAD PURCHASED THE PAINTING FROM THE ARTIST IN 1906. (Oil on board: 22) by 19 ins.)

e - SOLD FOR £17,000: "L'ASSI.TTE BLEUE," BY CEZANNE: A SMALL STILL-LIFB WHICH FETCHED A REMARKABLY HIGH PRICE. (Oil n cnva: 101 by 01 ins.)

SOLD FOR £32,000: " PORTRAIT DE L'ARTISTE PAR LUI-MEME," BY CEZANNE: A MAGNIFICENT PAINTING WHICH REALISED THE SECOND HIGHEST PRICE. (Ol on cavas: 13 by 10 ims.)

At the important sale of Impressionist and Modern paintings held at Sotheby's on May 6, an early Picasso nude, the property of an Australian sheep station owner, Major H. de Vahl Rubin, was sold to the Queensland Art Gallery for £55,000, the highest price ever paid in an auction room for the work of a living artist. Prior to this the record had been held by another Picasso, a Mother and Child, which was sold last November in New York for £54,000. This was not the only record set up, for the total sum realised-£394,113-

was the largest total ever achieved in a sale of mixed property at Sotheby's. Almost as remarkable a figure as that paid for the Picasso was the £32,000 for a much smaller painting, a striking self-portrait by Cizanne, which was purchased by Dr. F. Nathan, of Zurich. The third highest...