Qatari royals purchase Picasso's Child with a Dove for $77m

The Qatari royal family has bought Picasso's Child with a Dove in a private treaty sale for £50m ($76.7m), according to French newspaper Le Figaro.


The 1901 painting will now be housed in the gas-rich state of Qatar, leaving a UK collection that it has been part of for more than 80 years. Unfortunately, no British museum was able to raise the funds necessary to keep it in the UK.

UK culture minister, Ed Vaisey, put an export bar on the painting, which expired in December 2012. This is a similar move to that recently imposed on a Julia Margaret Cameron photo album.

The Qatari royals are renowned as buyers of some of the world's most expensive artworks. In fact, they paid the highest ever price for an artwork in 2011, purchasing Paul Cezanne's The Card Players for £158m ($250m).

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