A budget-busting night: Picasso's 'Femme Assise Pres d'une Fenetre' snapped up for £28.5m and Egon Schiele portrait sells for record price

A Picasso painting has fetched more than £28.5 million at auction.

The impressionist's 1932 piece, Femme Assise Pres d'une Fenetre (Woman Sitting Near a Window), is a portrait of his "golden muse" Marie-Therese Walter.

Helena Newman, from Sotheby's, said: "We are delighted that this stunning and monumental portrait, which is part of the defining series that introduced his 'golden muse' to the public eye, fetched such a strong price.

"In recent years in particular we have witnessed the remarkable allure of Picasso's portraits of Marie-Therese to collectors, with La Lecture selling for £25 million - double its pre-sale estimate - in Sotheby's February 2011 sale, and Nature Morte aux Tulipes selling in Sotheby's November 2012 sale for $41.5m (£26.5m).

"This particular portrait is a striking and notably modern-looking work from one of the artist's most celebrated periods."

The painting sold for £28,601,250.

Also sold at the London auction last night was the 1914 piece by Egon Schiele, Liebespaar - Selbstdarstellung mit Wally (Lovers - Self Portrait with Wally), which fetched £7.9m.

The sale of the double portrait, in gouache and pencil, broke the record price for a work on paper.

PA