NEW YORK, Nov 11: Picasso and Rauschenberg paintings at the heart of the spectacular Ganz collection fetched 206,516,525 dollars at the Christie's auction house here late Monday.

Bidders acquired 57 of the 58 pieces on sale, which had been estimated to be worth a total of 125 million dollars.

Victor and Sally Ganz spent some two million dollars over 50 years to acquire the 115-work collection -- also including works by Jasper Johns, Frank Stella, and Eva Hesse.

Christie's auctioned ``Dream'' -- Picasso's portrait of his mistress Marie-Therese Walter and the highlight of the collection -- for 48,402,500 dollars, well above its estimated worth of 30 million dollars.

The 1913 portrait of another mistress -- Eva Gouel -- entitled ``Femme assise dans un fauteuil (Eva),'' a Cubist masterpiece, fetched 24,752,500 dollars, against estimates of between 15 and 20 million dollars.

``Cat and Bird,'' which Picasso finished in 1939, went for 8,252,000 dollars -- it had been estimated at between six and seven million dollars.

Version ``O'' of the ``Femmes D'Alger'' -- one of a 15-work series the Catalan painted in homage to Delacroix in 1995 -- fetched 31,902,500 dollars, nearly triple its 10-12 million dollar appraisal.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.