DUBAI: A Pablo Picasso masterpiece expected to fetch at least $120 million at auction went on show Monday in Dubai, 1(icking off a set of rare viewings outside the United States.

`Femme a la montre`, the 1932 portrait of MarieTherese Walter, Picasso`s mistress and `golden muse` is being exhibited for two days before heading to Hong Kong and London, a boon for the United Arab Emirates` bid to establish itself as a cultural powerhouse.

The viewing is `the first time a painting of this calibre by the world-renowned artist has ever been exhibited in the UAE`, Sotheby`s Dubai said in a statement, noting it is the first time the portrait had been shown outside the United States in half a century.

`Over the years the UAE has earned the status of being a global art destination, which receives a further boost as this rare Picasso is unveiled here,` said UAE Culture Minister Sheilch Salem bin Khalid al-Qassimi.

`Femme a la montre` will be sold in November as part of a two-day auction of late New Yorker Emily Fisher Landau`s prestigious collection.

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.-AFP