Spanish painter Pablo Picasso’s 1938 painting Femme au Chapeau has fetched $11.2 million (5.7 million pounds) during an auction at Christie’s here, far surpassing auctioneers’ estimates.

Femme, the portrait of the beautiful and mysterious photographer and the painter’s lover, Dora Maar — had been valued by the auction house at between $4.9 million and $6.7 million during Monday’s bidding which also included works by Juan Gris, Matisse and Sciele.

The French poet and painter was one of Picasso’s most celebrated muses.

He immortalised her in several portraits that have become well known items at auctions. His 1941 Dora Maar au Chat was sold in May 2006 at Sotheby’s in New York for $95.2 million, the second highest price ever paid for a work of art at auction. At the same auction that night, dedicated to impressionist and modern art, another Picasso entitled Homme Assis au Fusil went to the highest bidder for $11 million.

Another Picasso masterpiece offered at Monday’s auction was Danseuse Espagnole from 1901, an exotic work of colourist art of a Spanish dancer painted when the artist was only 20, but this one found no buyer.