Image: Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
View source →Death's Head
Pablo Picasso, 1944
Technical Details
Medium
Bronze and copper
Dimensions
25 × 21 × 31 cm
Style
Expressionism / Sculpture
Decade
1940s
About This Work
This haunting skull-like head was modeled in plaster during the final months of the Nazi occupation of Paris and cast in bronze after the Liberation. The surface is deeply furrowed and eroded, as if the flesh has been stripped away by violence or disease. The work is one of Picasso's most direct responses to the horrors of the war years, a meditation on mortality and the fragility of civilization.
Created in the same year as the Liberation of Paris, Death's Head stands alongside Guernica as one of Picasso's most powerful anti-war statements. The Gestapo had visited his studio multiple times during the occupation, and the work reflects the psychological weight of those years.
Current Location
Musée National Picasso-Paris, Paris, France
Public Collection — Open to visitors
Visit museum website →Valuation & Provenance
2026 Estimated Value
$5–10 million (est.)
* Estimates are based on comparable auction results and market analysis. Not a formal appraisal.
Last Known Sale
No public auction record — held in permanent museum collection
Keywords
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