Largest Picasso painting exhibited in London

Pablo Picasso's largest-ever painting, a 10.4 metre-by-11.7 metre cloth used in a performance of the Ballets Russes in 1924, went on exhibition for the first time in London on Thursday.

The canvas, designed and signed by Picasso but finished by seven other artists, was used in a performance of the one-act ballet "Le train bleu" (The Blue Train) by Bronislava Nijinska.

The piece, which is to be a star exhibition in a show at the Victoria and Albert Museum dedicated to the Russian ballet company, was bought by the museum in 1968 but never previously exhibited.

More than 300 items will go on show in the exhibition: "Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes 1909-1929", opening September 25.