Sotheby's Sells Picasso Portrait for $40 Million

Pablo Picasso's "La Lecture," the portrait that revealed his teenaged mistress to the world, sold for more than $40 million, said Sotheby's.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- A painting by Pablo Picasso, the first work of art in which he portrayed his teenage lover, sold for more than $40 million in London, according to Sotheby's auction house.

An anonymous buyer on Tuesday paid about $40.7 million for "La Lecture," painted in 1932, said Sotheby's. A "heated" exchange among seven bidders lasted six minutes, with the winning bid placed by telephone, the auctioneer said.The painting is the first recognizable portrait of Picasso's lover, Marie-Therese Walter, who was 17 years old at the start of their relationship. Prior to this painting, she had "only ever appeared in Picasso's works in code, her features often embedded in the background of his paintings," according to Sotheby's.