Art Sells with Female Muses ... and Sells Big.

The first part of a London auction of a museum-worthy private art collection raked in $392.6 million, powered by an Amadeo Modigliani nude portrait that set a new European record. ...

Forty-eight works by artists including Picasso, Magritte and Klimt, amassed by Joe Lewis, the ex-owner of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, were auctioned.

Gustav Klimt's full-length society portrait "Bildnis Gertrud Loew" achieved the second highest price of the evening. Pursued by seven bidders, it sold to a private collector from Asia for $47.9 million.

Lucian Freud's "Sleeping by the Lion Carpet" achieved $38.8 million. A nude depiction of his model and muse Sue Tilley, the work had been held in the Lewis Collection since it was acquired from Acquavella Galleries in 1996, the year it was completed.

"Mona Lisa wasn't alive when she became famous — but I am," Tilley, now 69, told the Wall Street Journal.