A Christie's employee holds a painting by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso entitled 'Femme au Chapeau',1938, at the Christie's auction house impressionist and modern art sale in London in January 2008.
More than 100 million pounds (133 million euros, 197 million dollars) worth of impressionist and modern art changed hands Monday evening at a Christie's auction that kicked off a week packed with sales.
The highlight of the Impressionist and Modern Art sale at the London auction house was Pablo Picasso's 1938 work "Femme au chapeau", which sold for 5.7 million pounds.
In all, 105.4 million pounds worth of art were sold in the evening auction, the first in a swathe of sales when a series of impressionist, modern, post-war and contemporary works by some of the world's most famous artists go under the hammer at sales by Christie's and rival Sotheby's.
Other highlights of Monday's auction included "L'Ouled Nail" by Kees van Dongen that sold for 5.6 million pounds, nearly double its upper estimate of three million pounds.
Eight works by Egon Schiele, including several nudes and "Mutter und Kind", an oil painting inspired by his master Gustav Klimt, sold for a total of 12.5 million pounds.
"Mutter und Kind" brought in 2.9 million pounds by itself.
This week's auctions are set to defy the financial turbulence sparked by the global credit crunch, with one auction house director predicting as much as 560 million dollars worth of art could be sold.
