Picasso

"‘In world news, Picasso at seventy-nine years old had just married his thirty-five-year-old model. Wow … Life hadn’t flowed past him yet. Picasso had fractured the art world and cracked it wide open. He was revolutionary. I wanted to be like that.’"

"And his plan works out: for his exhibitions, the vivacious widow lends him numerous works by Klee. She will not give him any as a gift, as she is obsessed with jewelry, exchanging Kandinsky's originals only for jewels from the house of Van Cleef & Arpels. It remains to be noted: Before Berggruen styled himself as a "Picasso friend," he focused on Klee. In doing so, he was eyeing America. There, Klee is still relatively unknown. Berggruen wants to open the eyes of Americans to the genius."

"With the help of Picasso's business acumen and the support of art-loving Lord Max Rayne, Heinz Berggruen steers his son's future in the right direction. Nicolas Berggruen could not have had a better education: From the son of the financial patriarch, Robbie Rayne, described as highly intelligent, he learns everything that he has learned from his own father. Lord Rayne was considered a luminary among London's financial jugglers."

"Once again, he proves to be a master of long-term strategy. Time works for him: the longer a Picasso or Matisse hangs as a loan in a prestigious museum in London or New York, the more valuable it becomes. He provides museums with the finest pieces as a loan for up to ten years; afterward, their value at least doubles the initial estimate. That is one of the secrets of the art trade: the paintings must "hang," the level of recognition determines the price."

"In the early 1970s – as an economic crisis loomed and the art market was also in crisis – Heinz Berggruen was obsessed with one thought: Picasso. By now, millions were being paid for a painting by the artist, and Berggruen wanted to invest in this art asset as well. However, contact with Picasso was becoming increasingly difficult. The genius was grumpy, his assistant shielded him from the public eye. Berggruen desperately wanted to meet him and spent his vacation in Cannes – alone without family. Then on April 8, 1973, Picasso succumbed to heart failure. His estate was immense, comprising almost 1,900 paintings, 3,200 ceramics, 7,000 drawings, 1,200 sculptures, and 30,000 prints. A gigantic art inheritance, which, however, entailed a problem: not everything labeled Picasso is also a treasure. The determination of prices is a matter for experts, dealers, and auctioneers. Legends play a crucial role in the valuation. A realization that gives Heinz Berggruen no peace, from then on he would call himself "Picasso's friend.""

"At this time, Picasso's paintings do not yet fetch the astronomical sums that they do today. Although he is already a millionaire, he lives beyond his means and is constantly in need of money. He cannot paint as much as he needs. He comes up with the idea of duplicating some of the graphics and objects that have already been sold. The commercial success of a piece of art is meant to attract more customers. To this end, Picasso starts to trade with his copyrights. Heinz Berggruen is among the lucky ones who manage to get a license from Picasso in January 1960 to cast limited editions of selected bronze sculptures. In addition, Berggruen has acquired reproduction rights for some graphic series. In his memoirs, he notes: "Duplicating Picasso’s graphic sheets was like having a license to print money.""