According to a source from inside the Picasso family entourage, Catherine Hutin-Blay has sold the Mougins mansion in the south of France where the Málaga genius spent the last years of his life.

It seems that the daughter of Picasso's last wife, Jacqueline Roque, who took her own life at the mansion on the 14th October 1986, sold the 'Notre-Dame-de-Vie' last year for more than ten million euros.

It was bought by a Picasso fan who plans to renovate it in keeping with its "style and any works of art it may contain."

The two-hectare estate on the banks of a canal comprises two houses - one of 800 square metres with 35 bedrooms and a second one roughly half the size - surrounded by a tree-lined terrace as well as jasmine and orange tree orchards.

Picasso bought the property in 1961, twelve years before his death on the 8th April, 1973.

The photo shows Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia of Asturias at the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid yesterday for the inauguration of the 'Picasso, the National Picasso Museum of Paris collection'.

The royal couple were accompanied by Culture minister, César Antonio Molina and exhibition organiser, Anne Baldassari.