Cover of 'Desire Caught by the Tail.' (The Philosophical Library Inc., 1948.)

Tart, Big Foot and Fat and Skinny Anguish are some of the characters that people Pablo Picasso's play Desire Caught by the Tail, an odd little plotless number written by the painter in 1941 that, according to The New York Times, will be given a fresh dramatic reading at the Guggenheim. The play will be read on Oct. 14 and 15 in conjunction with the exhibition "Picasso: Black and White," which opens on Oct. 5.

From the story:

The play was first presented at a reading in 1944 with an all-star Left Bank existentialist cast: Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre and Raymond Queneau, among others of Picasso’s circle, with Albert Camus directing. The new cast won’t be quite as historically resonant but it will bring together an unlikely crew of bold-faced names under the direction of Anne Bogart: the playwright John Guare; the artists Guillermo Kuitca and Joan Jonas; Diana Picasso, a granddaughter of the artist.

When else will you get to see Richard Armstrong, the museum's director, reading the role of Silence?

Mr. Richardson. (Photo courtesy of Getty Images)

The British-born Picasso biographer John Richardson was recently named a knight and, in an interview with the Evening Standard to mark the occasion, showed that time has not tempered his personality or candor.

You should really just go read the thing yourself, but among the choice revelations is the fact that he once came back from America with a tattoo, and when Pablo found out he was infuriated. "I would have tattooed you!" he apparently said.

From the interview:

Apparently Picasso had always hoped to do a Cubist still life on someone's back. He was about to do one on Georges Braque in Paris, in fact, but the First World War intervened. It was perhaps Picasso's preference for the DIY "prison" method (needle, ink, pain) that put Richardson off - "It would have hurt."

For his investiture, Mr. Richardson was offered Prince Charles but really thought it would be better to wait for the Queen, so that's in April.

Also revealed: Mr. Richardson's Fifth Avenue apartment resembles an "Italian palazzo and contains one of the largest penises in the world, purchased from a whaling museum."

[via Art Market Monitor]

(Photo courtesy of the BBC)

The British Museum announced today that, following a gift of $1.6 million, it has acquired a major collection of etchings by Pablo Picasso made between 1930 and 1937.

The 100 etchings, known as the “Vollard Suite” were commissioned by the French dealer and publisher Ambroise Vollard, who gave Picasso a Renoir and a Cezanne for the sketches. The works are something of a diary, and apparently include many images of the artist’s young muse Marie-Thérèse Walter.

Most individual Vollard etchings seem to go for about $10,000 on Artnet so the $1.6 million price for the entire collection sounds about right. The purchase follows a gift from one Hamish Parker, who made the donation in memory of his father Horace Parker, a fan of the museum.

Mr. Parker is described as a “fund manager” by the BBC and if he’s the only Hamish Parker in London, may have once written a letter to The Daily Telegraph about public funding for ducks in the park. He is not to be confused with New York gadabout Hamish Parker-Bowles.

“'There’s never been a fossilized penis or vagina found on a dinosaur,' [a dealer] says. 'The first person who finds one is going to make bundles of cash, but who knows how much,' says [another dealer]"

So for our regular readers, the dinosaur penis would be roughly equivalent to an early Picasso that turns up in the estate of a woman who was the artist's secret lover and received the painting directly from him, with documentation that proves everything. All clear? Dinosaur penis means big money.

"Le premier cri" by Constantin Brancusi, which sold for a purchase price of $14.9 million (Courtesy of Christie's)

The fall auction season kicked off last night with a disappointing Impressionist and modern art sale at Christie's that filled the auction room with murmurs and tut-tuts, as fewer than half of the 82 lots on offer sold within or above their pre-sale estimates. The sale's total was $141 million (once buyer's premium was added), far below the auction's $211.9–$304.3-million pre-sale estimate.

At a press conference after the event, New York department head Conor Jordan pointed out that the sale's result was just "a little lower" than the figure earned by the Impressionist and modern sale in May, which brought in $156 million, though that auction did feature about 30 fewer lots. International department head Thomas Seydoux said buyers may have been hesitant because of recent economic developments in Europe, including a Greek bailout deal that is by no means finalized.

"We thought the works of art were good enough to handle them," Mr. Seydoux said, of the European market conditions. "We were wrong."

It wasn't all bad news. A new record was set for Max Ernst by his 1941 work The Stolen Mirror, which shot to a purchase price of $16.3 million, well past a previous high of $2.7 million for the artist, and a golden Brancusi sculpture sold for $14.9 million after some underbidding by gallerist-king Larry Gagosian. But of the 82 lots on offer, 31 went unsold, a rather dismal sell-through rate of 62 percent. No less than 10 lots found buyers below their low pre-sale estimates, indicating that collectors may have been willing to sell, even at lackluster prices.

"There will be a lot of thought about estimates going forward," Mr. Jordan said. "The market seems more sensitive, more selective. I think we have to be more cautious with the estimates."

Dealers reached for comment immediately following the sale agreed with his assessment. Janis Cecil, director of the Edward Tyler Nahem gallery, called the estimates "aggressive."

"The quality was not what one would expect in an evening sale," Ms. Cecil said.

"I thought the estimates were too high," said dealer Christophe Van de Weghe. "I think the pictures that were priced right sold. The ones that had a high estimate had no chance."

A standout moment from the auction came during the bidding for a bronze cast of Edgar Degas' Petite danseuse de quatorze ans (c. 1879-1881), which had been featured in promotional materials for the auction, but was ultimately what Mr. Jordan called the house's "headline casualty." Estimated to sell for between $25 million and $35 million, it failed to find a buyer and was bought in at just $18.5 million.

"Eighteen million five hundred thousand," said auctioneer Christopher Burge, scanning the room for bids, during the drawn out final round of bidding. "Eighteen million five hundred thousand." He would eventually repeat himself eleven times before the hammer. A signal from the phones made him jump, "Nineteen—"

"I'm sorry, sir," the specialist at the phone bank said quickly, drawing a horizontal line in the air. He'd misunderstood. No bid.

Mr. Burge waited a beat. "Eighteen million five hundred thousand," he resumed.

Helly Nahmad, of the eponymous New York gallery, called the auction "fair at best," and said that the failed Degas set a bad tone for the rest of the evening. "People got scared to bid after the Degas wasn't sold," he said. "It affected the whole mood of the sale."

Asked about the auction, Mr. Nahmad added, "I don't think this is a market changer. I think this is just a hiccup."

In fact, the Ernst wasn't the only piece set to set records. The $5.1 million purchase price for Pablo Picasso's La femme qui pleure (1937) marked a new world record both for a single print and for a Picasso print.

The action continues tomorrow at Sotheby's.