Picasso’s 96-year-old curtain Le Tricorne (The Three Cornered Hat) will be unveiled at its new–and hopefully permanent–New York home this spring.
The New-York Historical Society is about to unveil the newly-restored masterpiece, a theater curtain for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes production of “Le Tricorne” from 1919. It is the first work by the artist in the organization’s collection.
The curtain, which is possibly the largest Picasso painting in the US, was received as a gift from the New York Landmarks Conservancy after its controversial expulsion from its former home of 55 years, the iconic Four Seasons Restaurant in the Seagram Building.
The removal of the fragile, large-scale tapestry led to a legal battle between the Seagram Building’s landlord, Aby Rosen–who wanted the work he had reportedly described as a rag out–and the non-profit preservationist group the New York Landmarks Conservancy.
Strapped for cash, Diaghilev cut out the painted part of the curtain and sold it to a private collector in 1928. In 1957, it was acquired by Phyllis Lambert, who displayed it in the Four Seasons restaurant from 1959-2014. In 2005, she gave the curtain to the New York Landmarks Conservancy as a “Gift to the City.” The New-York Historical Society was entrusted with the iconic work in 2014.
Picasso’s Le Tricorne will go on view at New-York Historical Society from May 29, 2015.