A Pablo Picasso painting of his mistress may sell for as much as 18 million pounds ($28.6 million) at Sotheby’s in London next month as auction houses feed collectors’ hunger for trophy works of 20th-century art.

“La Lecture,” showing Picasso’s blonde muse Marie-Therese Walter asleep in a chair with a book on her lap, will be offered in Sotheby’s Feb. 8 sale of Impressionist and modern art, the New York-based company said in an e-mailed statement.

Staggering Cache Of Picassos Turns Up In France

A retired electrician in southern France who once worked for painter Pablo Picasso says he has hundreds of previously unknown works by the artist — a treasure trove of 271 pieces said to be worth about $80 million.

Pierre Le Guennec and his wife for years squirreled away the staggering cache — which is believed to be authentic, but whose origin is unclear — in their garage on the French Riviera, said Picasso Administration lawyer Jean-Jacques Neuer.

The works, dating from 1900 to 1932, include lithographs, portraits, watercolors and sketches — plus nine Cubist collages said to be worth euro40 million alone, according to French daily Liberation, which reported the discovery Monday.

Le Guennec, 71, says Picasso gave him the works as gifts. The electrician installed burglar alarm systems at Picasso's numerous houses in France during the three years before the artist died in 1973.