One of Pablo Picasso’s masterpieces, “Woman with a Watch,” was sold at auction Wednesday night for $139.3 million by Sotheby’s in New York, the second-highest price ever achieved for the artist.

The 1932 painting depicts one of the Spanish artist’s companions and muses, the French painter Marie-Therese Walter, and had been valued at over $120 million before going on the block, according to Sotheby’s.

The painting is part of Sotheby’s special sale this week of the collection of the wealthy New York patron of the arts Emily Fisher Landau, who died this year at the age of 102.

Julian Dawes, the house’s head of impressionist and modern art, called the Picasso canvas “a masterpiece by every measure.”

“Painted in 1932 — Picasso’s ‘annus mirabilis’ — it is full of joyful, passionate abandon yet at the same time it is utterly considered and resolved,” he said.

Walter was considered Picasso’s “golden muse”, and features in another of his works going under the hammer on Thursday at Christie’s: “Femme endormie,” or “Sleeping Woman”, estimated to sell for $25-$35 million.

Walter met Picasso in Paris in 1927, when the Spaniard was still married to Russian-Ukrainian ballet dancer Olga Khokhlova, and when Walter was 17.

She also featured in “Femme assise pres d’une fenetre (Marie-Therese)”, which was sold in 2021 for $103.4 million by Christie’s auction house.

In 2021, Sotheby’s also sold another Picasso featuring Walter, for $103 million. The couple had a daughter together who died last year.

Fifty years after his death in 1973 aged 91, Picasso remains one of the most influential artists of the modern world, and is often hailed as a dynamic and creative genius.

But in the wake of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and assault, his reputation has been tarnished by accusations that he exerted a violent hold over the women who shared his life and inspired his art.

Sotheby’s is hoping to net around $400 million in sales for pieces from Landau’s collection, which also includes works by Jasper Johns, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol.

Pakistan Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar said on Wednesday that there has been an increase in terror incidents in Pakistan since the Taliban came to power in 2021, Dawn reported.

Kakar linked the ongoing deportation drive of illegal immigrants to counter-terrorism actions, reported Dawn, a Pakistani English-language newspaper.

The Pakistan Caretaker Prime Minister, while addressing the media in Islamabad, said, “After the establishment of the interim Afghan government (Taliban) in August 2021, we had a strong hope that there would be long-term peace in Afghanistan. […] Strict action would be taken against Pakistan-opposing groups, especially the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, and they would absolutely not be allowed to use Afghan soil against Pakistan.”

“But unfortunately, after the establishment of the interim Afghan govt, there has been a 60 per cent increase in terror incidents and 500pc rise in suicide attacks in Pakistan,” he said.

He further said: “In the past two years, 2,267 innocent citizens’ lives have been lost to this tragic bloodshed, for which the terrorists of TTP are responsible who are conducting cowardly attacks on Pakistani using Afghan soil.”

“During this time, 15 Afghan citizens were also among the people involved in suicide attacks. Other than this, till now, 64 Afghan citizens were killed while fighting Pakistan’s law enforcement agencies during the counterterrorism campaign,” he added.

Kakar did not provide any further details about the alleged involvement of Afghan nationals in any specific terror attack.

His statement comes after the country witnessed a sharp rise in terror incidents during the past week, including at Mianwali Training Air Base claimed by the Tehreek-i-Jihad Pakistan and an ambush in Gwadar claimed by the Balochistan Liberation Front, while no group claimed responsibility for attacks in Dera Ismail Khan, as per Dawn.

Kakar went on to recall that the above details were in the knowledge of the Taliban.

The premier said that according to a monitoring report released in July this year by the United Nations, there was “clear mention of TTP centres in Afghanistan and increase in its activities against Pakistan”.

The prime minister added that even after reassurances from the Afghan government of taking action against the TTP, “no actions were taken against anti-Pakistan groups”. “Instead, in a few instances, clear evidence of enabling terrorism also came forward,” he said without providing further details, as per Dawn.

 Launching a sharp attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday asked why the former identifies himself as an Other Backward Class (OBC) when PM considers ‘poor’ as the only caste in India.

“PM Modi says in every speech, ‘I am OBC’. But when I talk about the caste census, they say there is no caste in India. There is only one caste in India: ‘Garib’. Modi ji, if ‘poor’ is the only caste in the country, then why do you call yourself OBC?,” Rahul Gandhi said while addressing an election rally in Chhattisgarh’s Ambikapur.

He further went on to say that all promises made by PM Modi, whether it be on black money, demonetization, or previously revoked farm laws, were either false or have never been delivered to the people.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi came here and promised you Rs 15 lakh. Did you receive it? He said demonetisation would wipe out black money. Did it happen? He said farmers will benefit from the Farm Bill. Farmers themselves rejected the bill. You know who speaks the truth and who lies,” he added.

Rahul Gandhi said that all promises he had made to the people of Chhattisgarh, including loan waiver for farmers, during the previous election had been delivered by the Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress government in the state

“I told you in the last elections that the farm loans would be waived off. Write it down; it will be waived off this time. Last time, we said, “Bijli bill half.” This time, the electricity bill for the consumption of up to 200 units will be waived. It means that 40 lakh families in Chhattisgarh will not pay even a penny for electricity. KG to PG–this will be the first state in India where education will be free from KG to PG,” he said.

Voting for the first phase of the Chattisgarh Assembly Elections for 20 seats was held on Tuesday.

Voting in the remaining 70 seats in Chhattisgarh will be held on November 17. The counting of votes will take place on December 3.