Modigliani portrait fetches £16m

Modigliani's portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne was valued at £8.5m

A portrait by Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani of his lover Jeanne Hebuterne has sold for £16.3m.

The oil painting, Jeanne Hebuterne (au chapeau), dates from 1919 - a year before Modigliani died of tuberculosis.

Ms Hebuterne, who was eight months pregnant, committed suicide a day after the artist's death.

The painting was part of a sale of modern and impressionist art, which raised almost £89m at London auction house Sotheby's on Monday.

An 1895 pastel of a woman bathing by French artist Edgar Degas sold for £6.7m in the same auction.

The high prices come during a week of high-profile art sales in London at rival auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's.

More than a dozen Picassos are on offer this week, as well as works by Monet, Renoir and Cezanne.

One of the Picasso paintings, Le Peintre et Son Modele (The Painter and his Model) sold at Sotheby's for £7.4m on Monday.