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Global bidders competed at this evening's auction and demonstrated that the art market continued to attract significant levels of spending, particularly for the rarest and most exceptional works of art.  It was also for the first time an auction in London has broken the £150 million barrier. The top price was paid for Portrait of Angel Fernández de Soto, 1903, a Blue Period masterpiece by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), which sold for £34,761,250 / $51,585,695 / €41,922,068. It was offered at auction by The Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, a charity which focuses on the promotion of arts, culture and heritage in Britain.  Frauenbildnis (Portrait of Ria Munk III), one of the last great female portraits painted by Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), sold for £18,801,250 / $27,901,055 / €22,674,308 against an estimate of £14 million to £18 million. Le baiser, 1969, by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) realized £12,137,250 / $18,011,679 / €14,637,524.. It had been acquired by the vendor at auction in London in June 2003 for £2,861,600. Parc de l'hopital Saint-Paul, 1889, by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) realized £9,001,250 / $13,357,855 / €10,855,508. Painted during the artist's voluntary confinement at the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole, one of the richest and most important periods of his career, it was offered at auction having been in the same distinguished European collection since the 1960s (estimate: £8 million to £12 million) Nu à la chaise longue, 1923, an important and colourful work by Henri Matisse (1869-1954) which was formerly in the collection of the industrialist and celebrated collector Henri Canonne, sold for £6,649,250 / $9,867,487 / €8,018,996. Until the pre-sale exhibition at Christie's it had been unseen in public since the year after it was painted.