A vibrant Picasso masterpiece featuring his muse and partner, Dora Maar, has resurfaced after over eighty years, capturing the spotlight at an auction on Friday. This striking portrait fetched an impressive €32 million ($57 million) including fees.

Created in July 1943, the painting titled Bust of a Woman with a Flowered Hat (Dora Maar) showcases Maar adorned in a vividly colored floral hat. At the time, Maar, an accomplished artist and photographer, was nearing the end of her tumultuous seven-year relationship with Picasso, which added emotional depth to the piece.

Originally acquired in 1944, this exquisite work had remained within the confines of a private family collection, making its auction debut a highly anticipated event. The Drouot auction house, where the painting was sold, hailed the occasion as an extraordinary moment, unveiling the “full radiance of a work long kept secret” from Picasso’s renowned Woman in a Hat series.

The work was purchased in 1944 and had not been on the market since, remaining in the family collection.

The painting was auctioned at the Drouot auction house, which called the reappearance of the work, part of Picasso’s Woman in a Hat series, “a moment of rare significance, revealing for the first time the full radiance of a work long kept secret”.

At a preview this week, Picasso specialist Agnes Sevestre-Barbé marvelled at how vivid the portrait has remained.

“We have a painting that is exactly as it was when it left the studio,” she said.

“It wasn’t varnished, which means we have all its raw material, all of it. It’s a painting where you can feel all the colors, the entire chromatic range.”

“It’s a painting that speaks for itself,” she added. “You just have to look at it — it’s full of expression, and you can see all of Picasso’s genius.”

Previously, Sevestre-Barbé noted, the work had only been seen in a black-and-white photograph.

“We couldn’t imagine from this photo that this painting was so colorful, so amazing, really.”

Auctioneer Christophe Lucien said before the sale that the work was of huge interest across the globe.

“It’s being talked about in all the world capitals with a strong art market, from the United States to Asia, and of course through all the major European markets,” he said.