Picasso helps Balzac to a record price
Sotheby’s claimed a world record price for a printed French book on December 5 when a 1931 edition of Balzac’s Le Chef d’Oeuvre Inconnu, illustrated by Picasso, sold just short of estimate for €550,000 (£353,000).
Balzac’s story, first published in 1832, concerns the vain quest of Master Frenhofer, teacher to the…