Les Noces de Pierrette is a painting by the Spanish artist and sculptor, Pablo Picasso. Painted in 1905, during Picasso's Blue Period; a time when the artist faced poverty and depression following the suicide of his friend Carlos Casagemas in 1901. The painting was acquired in 1907 by Josef Stránský, an art dealer and a friend of Picasso's. From 1945 to 1962, the painting was owned by Picasso's son Paulo Picasso. It then changed hands to the Swedish born, Swiss based financier Frederick Roos who donated it to the French Government. The French Government held on to the painting... until it was sold at Binoche et Godeau in Paris on November 30, 1989. The buyer, Tomonori Tsurumaki, a real-estate developer, investment banker and owner of Autopolis racetrack, purchased the painting for the sum of $51,670,000, making it one of the world's most expensive paintings. With the collapse of Tsurumaki's company, Nippon Tri-Trust, the painting ended up in the hands of the construction company Hazama, which had constructed Tsurumaki's racetrack.
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