7 Facts About Pablo Picasso

1. On 21 June 2016, a painting by Pablo Picasso titled Femme Assise sold for £43.2 million ($63.4 million) at Sotheby's London, exceeding the estimate by nearly $20 million, setting a world record for the highest price ever paid at auction for a Cubist work.

2. As of 2015, Pablo Picasso remained the top-ranked artist according to the Art Market Trends report.

3. In an interview published in 1923, Pablo Picasso said, "The several manners I have used in my art must not be considered as an evolution, or as steps towards an unknown ideal of painting.

4. In 1944, Pablo Picasso joined the French Communist Party, attended the World Congress of Intellectuals in Defense of Peace in Poland, and in 1950 received the Stalin Peace Prize from the Soviet government.

5. Around this time, Pablo Picasso wrote poetry as an alternative outlet.

6. In February 1917, Pablo Picasso made his first trip to Italy.

7. In 1911, Pablo Picasso was arrested and questioned about the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre.