The Spanish artist's portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto will be shown at an invitations-only exhibition in the Peter Smirnoff mansion, in central Moscow, before it goes under the hammer at an impressionist and modern art auction in New York November 8.
"The masterpiece by the famous 20th-century artist will stay in the capital for just two days," a spokesperson for Christie's in Russia told RIA Novosti.
Moscow art students will be able to see the picture on day two of the show, he said.
The 1903 portrait, expected to fetch $40-60 million, is one of Picasso's few Blue Period works to be put up for auction in recent years, and the model's being a close friend of the painter makes it all the more valuable, Christie's officials said.
Composer Andrew Lloyd Weber, who bought the painting in 1995, is selling it off to raise funds for charitable causes, including support of young performing artists.
Russian billionaires, many of whom made their fortunes during a sweeping privatization campaign in the early 1990s, show an increasing interest in artwork and antiques offered for sale by major Western auctioneers, such as Christie's and Sotheby's.
Of the latest art deals involving Russian buyers, the most high-profile has been the purchase by aluminum and oil tycoon Viktor Vekselberg of the late Malcolm Forbes' Faberge collection, including nine Easter Eggs created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries on commission from Russia's Imperial House, and about 180 other Faberge pieces. The transaction, arranged through Sotheby's, is said to have been in excess of $90 million.
