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According to BBC News, a selection of eleven Pablo Picasso artworks that have been on display at a Las Vegas hotel for more than two decades has sold at auction for nearly $110 million. The auction took place two days before the 140th birthday of the Spanish artist on 25 October. The auction featured nine paintings and two ceramic pieces by the Spanish artist, who died in 1973.

The collection was started more than 20 years ago by the American casino mogul Steve Wynn, the former owner of the Bellagio Hotel. The sale was part of an effort by the hotel to add more works by women, minority artists, and those from emerging countries to the collection. The works, which were owned by MGM Resorts, featured in the Picasso Restaurant at the Bellagio Hotel. The company said Saturday’s auction would help it improve the diversity of its fine art collection.

The Bellagio has always been renowned for its art and five of the paintings had hung on the walls of its fine dining restaurant, which is called Picasso. The restaurant will continue to display 12 other Picasso works.

The collection spans more than 50 years of artistic output. The 1938 painting Woman in a Red-Orange Beret, which features Picasso’s lover and muse Marie-Thérèse Walter, fetched the highest price of the evening at $40.5m. It had initially been expected to sell for between $20m and $30m.

Another masterpiece, the large-scale portraits Homme et Enfant and Buste d’Homme sold for $24.4m and $9.5m respectively, while smaller works on ceramic, such as Le Dejeuner Sur l’herbe which sold for $2.1m, went for three or four times their pre-sale estimate.  The names of the buyers have not been revealed

This post was originally published on VOSA.