Picasso masterpiece likely to exceed $200m

in the current feverish market and with Picasso popular among modern art aficionados, there have been predictions that the final bid will be significantly higher than the estimation.

A vibrant masterpiece by Pablo Picasso, painted as an elegy to his friend and rival Henri Matisse, is predicted to set a world record for an artwork sold at auction in New York this morning.

Widely regarded as the most important painting by the Spanish artist to remain in private hands, Les femmes d'Alger (Version O) has been the star turn in a pre-sale global tour taking in Hong Kong, London and Manhattan.

The piece is expected to smash the auction record - US$142.4 million ($192 million) for a Francis Bacon triptych at Christie's New York in 2013 - when the bidding finishes in the same room at Rockefeller Centre.

Christie's has estimated it will fetch US$140 million, but with the standard commission of about 12 per cent added, this would rise to more than US$155 million, enough to break the record set for Bacon's painting of his friend Lucian Freud.

However, in the current feverish market and with Picasso popular among modern art aficionados, there have been predictions that the final bid will be significantly higher.

The owner of Les femmes d'Alger (Version O) is selling the work anonymously - the buyer is also likely to remain unnamed - 28 years after acquiring it at auction from the New York collectors Victor and Sally Ganz.

The artist created 15 variations of Les femmes d'Alger, inspired by the French master Eugene Delacroix, who, in 1834, had painted Women of Algiers in their Apartment. Picasso embarked on the epic project in honour of his friend and competitor Matisse, who died in 1954, and the final 1955 canvas, Version O, is the most highly acclaimed.

Brooke Lampley, the auction house's head of impressionist and modern art, said: "In my 10 years at Christie's, no sale has attracted so many of our top clients or so much excitement."