‘New York’s Picasso’ removed from iconic eatery after legal dispute

Picasso's “Le Tricorne," a 19-foot by 20-foot stage curtain, that hangs in the lobby of the Seagram building, in a passageway connecting the two dining rooms of New York's Four Seasons restaurant. The pairing between one of the art legend’s biggest paintings and one of New York's most illustrious eateries ends Sunday, when the unusual artwork is to be eased off its travertine wall and ultimately moved to a museum, after a legal dispute that for a time split some of the city’s most prominent preservationists.

After more than 12 hours of careful maneuvering, workers at New York's Four Seasons restaurant removed "Le Tricorne," a nearly-century old Picasso tapestry painting. The move follows a legal dispute between the building's owner and the New York Landmarks Conservancy.

• Depicting spectators socializing after a bullfight, "Le Tricorne" — or "three-cornered hat" — was painted in 1919 for an avant-garde ballet troupe. By emphasizing spectators in his scene, "Picasso hoped to blur the frontier between stage and auditorium," biographer Sir John Richardson wrote in the third volume of "A Life of Picasso."
• "Le Tricorne" has held a prominent spot at the Four Seasons since its 1959 opening in Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's landmark Seagram Building. The restaurant became the quintessence of A-list, expense-account lunching, serving presidents and princesses, the Dalai Lama and Madonna. (It's unaffiliated with the posh Four Seasons hotel nearby.)
• At 19 feet by 20 feet, the curtain is believed to be the biggest Picasso painting in North America. Appraised in 2008 at $1.6 million, it's far from the artist's priciest work. But some fans see the curtain as part of the expansive, sleek ambience that made the Philip Johnson-designed Four Seasons "the gold standard in modern restaurant design," as architecture critic Paul Goldberger has described it.
• Seagram founder Samuel Bronfman's daughter, Phyllis Lambert, helped oversee the design and bought the Picasso for $50,000.

The limestone wall behind the artwork is in desperate need of repairs, according to RFR Holding, which owns the Seagram Building at 375 Park Avenue. Because the wall could collapse unless it is repaired, the firm told the New York Times, the art is in danger as it is currently situated.

Though the Four Seasons’ interior was granted landmark status in 1989, the Picasso in question was left off the designation because it was owned separately and could therefore be moved.