NEW YORK — A stage curtain believed to be the biggest Pablo Picasso painting in the United States is moving to a museum, ending a dispute over whether it could stay in its longtime spot in the storied Four Seasons restaurant, the painting’s owner announced on Thursday.

The 19-by-20-foot curtain, called “Le Tricorne,” is being donated to the New York Historical Society, where it’s expected to go on display after some conservation work, painting owner the Landmarks Conservancy said. The timetable isn’t clear; the groups are working out the arrangements.

The painting is so familiar a sight that its Four Seasons berth is known as “Picasso Alley.” The pact resolves a lawsuit pitting the Landmarks Conservancy against a real estate magnate known as an art patron.

“It’s going to be at a good home, where even more people will see it,” conservancy President Peg Breen said.

Picasso painted the curtain in 1919 for “Le Tricorne,” or “three-cornered hat,” a ballet by the avant-garde, Paris-based Ballet Russes troupe. The painting depicts the aftermath of a bullfight.

Appraised at $1.6 million in 2008, the painting isn’t considered one of Picasso’s greatest pieces but stands as a major example of his theatrical set work, experts say. And it has graced the Four Seasons’ landmarked, modernist interior since its 1959 opening.

Restaurant landlord, RFR Holding Corp. — co-founded by state Council on the Arts Chairman Aby Rosen — said the curtain had to be moved for repairs to the wall behind it. The Landmarks Conservancy sued RFR to try to stop the move, saying the move could destroy the brittle canvas.

The painting will be carefully wrapped on a huge roller, and conservators will do any needed restoration work, Breen said.

---

Copyright ©2026— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---