How Did Pablo Picasso Die?
Pablo Picasso died on 8 April 1973, aged 91, at his home in Mougins, in the South of France. The cause was heart failure. He left no will and a vast fortune, and his death set off a bitter inheritance war and a chain of family tragedies.
For a man who had controlled everyone around him, his death proved just as turbulent as his life.
Here is how the end came, and the wreckage it left behind.
How Picasso died
Died: 8 April 1973, in Mougins, France.
Age: 91.
Cause: heart failure.
He left: no will and an enormous estate.
Aftermath: an inheritance battle and several suicides.
The last evening
Picasso worked almost to his final day. He died at home with his last wife, Jacqueline, after an evening with friends.
The story goes that he raised a glass and told his guests to drink to him, because he himself could no longer drink. I love that even his exit was a performance.
No will, a fortune, and chaos
For all his wealth, Picasso never made a will. He died owning thousands of his own works, several properties and a fortune in cash.
Settling the estate took six years and a small army of lawyers. In the end his heirs paid France's inheritance tax in artworks, and those works became the core of the Picasso Museum in Paris.
The tragedies that followed
Picasso's pull on the people around him did not stop when he died. It seemed to drag some of them down with him.
His grandson, barred from the funeral, took his own life within days. His longtime companion Marie Therese Walter took her own life a few years later, and his last wife Jacqueline did the same in 1986. The cost he exacted from those who loved him is told in how Picasso destroyed the six women who loved him.
A death that sent prices soaring
If anything, dying made Picasso bigger. With no more supply, demand for his work climbed for decades.
In 2015 one of his paintings sold for around 179 million dollars, then a record for any artwork at auction. Just how much he had made is here: how many paintings Picasso made.
The questions people ask about Picasso’s death
How did Picasso die? Heart failure, in 1973, at 91.
Where did he die? Mougins, in the South of France.
Did he leave a will? No, which caused a six year inheritance battle.
What happened to his family? Several relatives, including two of his partners, took their own lives.
What is his record price? About 179 million dollars, set in 2015.
Dead on his own terms
Picasso died the way he had lived, on his own terms, glass raised to the guests he had outlasted. I follow the whole restless life, and the people it cost, in Pablo Picasso: The Complete Story.
