Picasso portrait set to ring up small fortune

LONDON - A tiny portrait Pablo Picasso set into a ring to appease his lover Dora Maar after an argument will go under the hammer at Sotheby's London auction house next week.

The piece of jewelry was created by the Spanish artist after he berated Maar for convincing him to trade an artwork for a ruby ring, prompting her to throw it into the River Seine in Paris.

While Maar later searched unsuccessfully for the discarded ring, Picasso went to work on creating a replacement with a miniature portrait of his muse which he set into a ring encircled with flowers.