LONDON.- Modigliani and Picasso were the Stars of the great auction of modern art celebrated today at Sotheby´s in London where over 163 million dollars were taken in establishing a record for the city.

A portrait painted in 1919 by Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) of his sentimental partner Jeanne Hébuterne sold tonight for 30.2 million dollars, well over the estimated price of 21.9 million. The seller was Marvin Schein, a director of publicly traded medical-products distributor Henry Schein Inc. of Melville, New York, and founder of Schein Dental Equipment Corp.

The painting, "Jeanne Hébuterne (with hat)", reflected all the characteristics that the painter developed painting his lover, such as the simple geometry of the feminine body, the long neck or the almond eyes.

A portrait of the same woman, “Jeanne Hébuterne (in front of a door), who committed suicide in 1920 after the painter´s death, from whom she had gotten pregnant, was sold in New Cork on November 2004 for 31.3 million dollars, the highest price ever paid at an auction for a work made by the Italian painter.

Another star at the auction was Pablo Picasso´s (1881-1973) The Painter and his Model”, one of the most important paintings related to this theme made by the artist. The painting, in which Picasso explores new expressive ways of the erotic tension and the sensuality between painter and model, sold for 13.6 million dollars. Another Picasso, “bust of a Woman with Hat”, a portrait of Dora Maar, which had a price of between 7.3 and 11 million dollars went without a buyer.