Picasso's "Tete de Femme" sold for $12.9m at Christie's London, via Christie's

Picasso’s 1963 portrait of his headband-wearing second wife, Tete de femme (Jacqueline), fetched $12.9m last night at Christie’s in London, more than doubling the high estimate. It was the evening’s priciest lot.

“My parents loved that painting,” said Nancy Newberger, speaking by phone from Chicago this morning. Newberger sold the painting, along with her sister Susan Newberger.

It had belonged to her late parents, Kenneth and Bernice Newberger, who had investments with convicted swindler Bernard Madoff. “There were losses, but not major holdings,” confirmed Newberger. She called the sale “bittersweet,” saying it was difficult to part with an object her parents had treasured and hung in their living room.

The Newbergers had two accounts with Madoff, according to an on-line client list posted by the Wall Street Journal: the Bernice Newberger Living Trust, and Kenneth Newberger and Bernice Newberger c/o WR Industries, a Chicago manufacturing company the family is involved with.

Bernice Newberger died in July, 2009 at the age of 92. Kenneth, a real estate investor, died in 2002 at the age of 93. The couple also lived in Palm Beach and were members of the Palm Beach Country Club, as was Madoff.

The Newbergers acquired the Picasso in 1981 from New York’s Saidenberg Gallery.  It was previously owned by the well-known Chicago collectors, Mary and Leigh Block. “My parents were happy to bring the painting back to Chicago,” said Newberger.

The painting’s next home is more of a mystery. The work attracted Russian bidding, according to Bloomberg News’s coverage by Scott Reyburn, who attended the sale. The painting was estimated to sell for $4.7m to $6.3m and made $12.9m with reported action from at least five bidders. The painting was sold with a third party guarantee in place. (Read more about those in my Art Newspaper article here).

Overall Christie’s sold $122.2m last night in Impressionist, Modern and Surreal art, suggesting an uptick in the global appetite for established masters. The sale included 85 lots, of which 69 found buyers, according to Christie’s press release, or 81 percent sold by lot. That result outperforms the rockier sell-thru rates achieved last week during New York’s Old Master sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s.

Last night’s results bode well for Sotheby’s sale taking place this evening, with standout works by Giacometti, Klimt and Cezanne.