A Musing Story

Dora Maar au Chat, Pablo Picasso's 1941 portrait of his 1930s and early '40s muse, sold at auction yesterday at Sotheby's for $95.2 million, the highest ever paid for a painting at auction. It was put on the block by a member of the Helene Curtis hair products dynasty. The unidentified buyer, seated in one of the Siberian back rows, was thought to be a tyro on the auction scene by Sotheby's staff due to his erratic paddle-waving and "$30 haircut." After winning the prize, he scurried out a side door. Turns out the guy is Rustam Tariko, the Russian Imperia vodka mogul worth $870 million. He'll probably hang the painting in the kitchen. Or give it to his barber.

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