By Yinka Adegoke
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ever wondered how to get the world’s greatest artists to produce original paintings for free? It helps if you produce some of the world’s best wine.
That is the story behind an exhibition of extraordinary paintings and fine wines that opened on Friday at auction house Sotheby’s in New York.
The 60 paintings, by marquee names including Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol and Francis Bacon, were commissioned to illustrate the labels of vintage wines from Chateau Mouton Rothschild from the Bordeaux region of France.
Baron Philippe de Rothschild began the tradition to celebrate the end of World War Two in 1945. Since then the painters have agreed to allow their art to grace the labels in exchange for payment in bottles of vintage wine rather than cash.
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The tradition has been continued by the baron’s daughter, Baroness Philippine, who unveiled the latest addition to the collection on Friday -- a watercolour painted by Prince Charles.
The baroness said she and her father never had to spend time persuading an artist to create a painting for the labels because it was always done out of mutual appreciation.
"I wouldn’t like to convince an artist. It’s a love story between the artists and Mouton," she said.
The paintings show a vast range in style and content like the artists themselves. In 1958 Dali produced a sketching of a ram. Warhol in 1975 created a classic Pop Art portrait of Baron Philippe. Prince Charles’ watercolour is a landscape of pine trees against an azure sky.
An avid art collector, the baroness said the most difficult part of her role was picking which artists to commission.
"I’m interested in contemporary art and always keep myself aware but the only thing I can’t do with Mouton is to use young and unknown artists because of the celebrity and prestige of the wine," she said.
The exhibition runs through March 10. Sotheby’s is also organising an auction of the wines from the private cellar of Baroness Philippine on February 28.
The wines, depending on vintage and bottle size, range in price from a few hundred dollars to as high as $80,000-$150,000 (40,800-76,400 pounds) for a jeroboam bottle from 1945 with label by French artist Philippe Jullian.
