)
Christie's auction house has announced it will offer a 1955 masterpiece by Pablo Picasso for an estimated $140 million.
"Women of Algiers (Version O)" will hit the auction block on May 11. The vibrantly colorful work features a scantily attired female amid smaller nudes. It is part of a 15-work series Picasso created between 1954 and 1955.
It'll be offered with a group of two dozen other major 20th century works in a stand-alone sale called "Looking Forward to the Past."
Christie's didn't reveal the seller, but said the collector acquired the painting at Christie's in 1997 for $31.9 million.
The current record for any artwork sold at auction is held by Francis Bacon's triptych "Three Studies of Lucian Freud." It sold at Christie's for $142.4 million in 2013.
