Movie mogul buys Picasso at NY auction for nearly $30m

Chinese movie mogul Wang Zhongjun paid $29.9 million for a Picasso painting auctioned off from the Goldwyn family collection at Sotheby's in New York on Tuesday.

Femme au Chignon Dans un Fauteuil (Woman with a Hairbun on a Sofa) was painted by Pablo Picasso in 1948 and is a portrait of his lover Francoise Gilot. It was acquired by the late Hollywood film producer Samuel Goldwyn in 1956.

Wang, quoted in an after-sale news release by the auction house, said: "I first fell in love with the painting and then I fell in love with its story. The Goldwyn family is legendary in our industry, and in this one work, I can see not only Pablo Picasso's genius, but also Samuel Goldwyn's creative vision."