A soon to be auctioned off Pablo Picasso masterpiece dated from 1955 is expected to fetch $140 million.

The painting, entitled "Women of Algiers (Version O)," will be leading an auction at Christie's on May 11. The vibrant work of art displays a female figure in the foreground in the midst of several smaller female nudes.

The woman in the central of the piece is Picasso's muse, and eventual second wife, Jacqueline Roque.

The canvas was originally part of a 15-work series that Picasso developed between 1954 and 1955. The series was inspired by a 19th century art piece by Eugene Delacroix called "Women of Algiers in their Apartment."

As reported in The Associated Press, Christie's did not reveal the name of the seller but stated that the collector had acquired the painting in 1997 for $31.9 million when Christie's had sold the entire collection of the noted New York collectors Victor and Sally Ganz.

The collectors had at one time owned all 15 works in the series.

Olivier Camu, Christie's deputy chairman of impressionist and modern art, has spoken to the magnitude of the art work by saying: "One can arguably say that this is the single most important painting by Picasso to remain in private hands."

"Women of Algiers (Version O)" has been displayed in several major museum retrospectives in the 1950s and 1960s.

Recently, the painting appeared in exhibitions at the National Gallery in London, the Louvre in Paris, and the Tate Britain.

"Women of Algiers (Version O)" will be offered along with a group of two dozen other modern art works created between 1902 and the end of the 20th century in a stand-alone sale called "Looking Forward to the Past."

In May 2010, Christie's set a Picasso sales record when the auction house sold the Spanish painter's 1932 work "Nude, Green Leave and Bust" for $106.5 million.