LONDON - An early painting by Pablo Picasso showing him entwined with his girlfriend in a naked pose sold at auction in Britain on Thursday for 81,260 pounds (101,629 euros, 160,859 dollars).
The watercolour, entitled "Etreinte" (Embrace), was painted in 1901 or 1902, when Picasso would have been 20 or 21 and was found propped against the wall of a house in southern England with two other masterpieces.
It sold for less than its 100,000 pound estimate to an anonymous British-based buyer at auctioneers Duke's in Dorchester, southern England.
It was found alongside two works by George Stubbs and Alfred Munnings, who both specialised in painting horses. They sold for 53,775 pounds and 65,725 pounds respectively.
kah/gj/gk
04/10/2008 15:03 GMT