CHRISTIE'S SELLS PICASSO'S TETE DE FEMME (JACQUELINE) FOR £8.1 MILLION

A STUNNING PICASSO MASTERPIECE UNSEEN IN PUBLIC FOR 43 YEARS FETCHED MORE THAN TWICE ITS ESTIMATED PRICE AT THE RECENT CHRISTIE'S IMPRESSIONIST AND MODERN ART SALE IN LONDON WHEN IT SOLD FOR £8.1 MILLION. 'TETE DE FEMME (JACQUELINE)', A 1963 PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST'S SECOND WIFE, HAD NOT BEEN SEEN IN PUBLIC SINCE 1967 AND WAS EXPECTED TO FETCH £3-4 MILLION, CHRISTIE'S SAID. THE PORTRAIT HAD NEVER BEEN OFFERED AT AUCTION AND HAD REMAINED IN THE SAME COLLECTION SINCE 1981. IT WAS THE MOST TALKED ABOUT LOT OF THE STRING OF MASTERPIECES BY PICASSO, RENOIR AND MATISSE WHICH WENT ON THE AUCTION BLOCK. JACQUELINE HAD AN UNUSUALLY SHORT NECK AND IT IS SAID THAT PICASSO WOULD JOKINGLY EXAGGERATE ITS SIZE IN HIS PORTRAITS, AS IN THE ELONGATED EXAMPLE. A CHRISTIE'S SPOKESPERSON WOULD NOT REVEAL THE IDENTITY OF THE WINNING BIDDER, 'IT'S BEEN A VERY BUSY EVENING AND MANY OF THE PIECES HAVE EXCEEDED THEIR ESTIMATES', SHE SAID.