Who Was the Mysterious Picasso Bidder?

May 4, 2006 — -- The portrait of the man who paid the second-highest price ever for a painting is far more obscure than the colorful painting of Dora Maar he bid on during a Sotheby's auction.

The 1941 portrait of Dora Marr depicts the artist's lover, who influenced much of his work throughout the 1930s and '40s.

During the auction, a man who appeared to be in his 40s sat in the back of the packed room, waving paddle No. 1340.

He refused to identify himself to the telephone bidders, and then made the top bid of $95.2 million.Sotheby's auctioneer Tobias Meyer said the high bid is a tribute to the work.

"I would just say that it was a very intense, very beautiful painting that had an emotional pull … that people really, really want," Meyer said.

Only one painting has fetched a higher price at auction, Picasso's "Garcon à la pipe," which sold in 2004 for $104 million.

This time the buyer made his bid as members of the audience reportedly craned their necks to get a glimpse of the mystery man, who seemed inexperienced because he sat in the back of the room.

In the end, experience didn't matter: He claimed the painting of the Picasso muse while creating a little mystique himself.