Gallery workers display an artwork by Spanish painter Pablo Picasso.

An oil painting by Pablo Picasso sold for $103.4 million at a Christie's auction in New York, smashing its presale estimate of $55 million.

The portrait of Picasso's French lover Marie-Therese, "Femme assise près d'une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse)", or 'Woman sitting near a window,' led the '20th Century Evening Sale' on Thursday.

Keith Gill, head of the Impressionist and Modern Art department at Christie's London, said the work may be familiar to art lovers from its appearance at a landmark Picasso 1932 exhibition at the Tate Modern in 2018.

"It's an incredibly iconic image. It hasn't been seen up at auction since 2013. And the appreciation of Marie-Therese portraits, particularly from 1932, has very much grown since that time.

 A gallery worker poses alongside an artwork  by Spanish painter Pablo Picasso during a photocall at Christie’s auction house in central London. 

So this will be a stand-out price for the artist," said Gill.

After an intense bidding war, the Picasso was snapped up by an online bidder in California, Christie's said.

Thursday's auction, which was streamed live from the Rockefeller Center, marked the fifth work by the Spanish painter to have sold for more than $100 million.