Picasso's 1921 so-called "Homme et Femme," which sold at Sotheby's on Nov. 2 for $5.3 million.

Evidently two pairs of breasts weren’t a dead give away.

Sotheby’s sold Picasso’s 1921 pastel semi-cubist drawing of two figures titled Homme et Femme last night for $5.3 million. The catalog declares the work was completed soon after the birth of Picasso’s first son when all was harmonious with wife Olga.

A cataloguer writes: “The present work is a rare instance of Picasso returning his focus to the male-female couple in this intense period of familial redefinition.”

Not so fast, according to art critic and scholar Phyllis Tuchman, who suspects that the work is actually two seated women, not a man and a women.

For one thing there is matter of dome-like breasts on both figures. Next, both appear to have flowing coiffures.

Tuchman also explained there is a related, fairly famous 1920 painting at the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Dusseldorf of two female nudes.

Tuchman says the title, Homme et Femme,  probably dates to 1951 when Christian Zervos wrote the catalog raisonne, working from a black and white reproduction, which may have obscured the work-or at least the breasts.

Deux baigneuses assises (Deux femmes nues), Fall/1920. Collection Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf

Sotheby’s, evidently clued in to Picasso’s renderings of female pairs in the early 1920s,  also included other female pairings in the auction catalog to illustrate the work.

Deux baigneuses, pastel on paper, 24-October/1920, Musée Picasso. Work reproduced in Sotheby's catalog.

Another related image, via Picasso Project: Deux femmes nues Location: Paris Date: 18-April/1920 Medium: Pastel on paper,Douglas Cooper Collection