Picasso's Women of Algiers has become the most expensive painting to sell
at auction, going for $160m at
Christie's in New York.
Eleven
minutes of prolonged bidding from telephone buyers preceded the final sale -
for much more than its pre-sale estimate of $140m.
The final
price of $179.3m includes commission of just over 12%.
The sale
also featured Alberto Giacometti's life-size sculpture Pointing Man, which set
its own record.
It is now
the most expensive sculpture sold at auction, after going for $141.3m. Both buyers chose to remain anonymous.
Giacometti's life-size sculpture Pointing Man
The Picasso
oil painting is a vibrant, cubist depiction of nude courtesans, and is part of
a 15-work series the Spanish artist created in 1954-55 designated with the
letters A to O.
"This
is an absolutely blockbuster picture - it's one of the most exciting pictures
that we've seen on the market for 10 years," said Philip Hoffman, founder
and CEO of the Fine Art Fund Group.
"Yes
there are one or two [Picassos] that could even smash that record but it has a
huge wall presence, it's a big show-off picture.
The previous
world record for a painting sold at auction was $142.4m, for British painter
Francis Bacon's Three Studies of Lucian Freud in 2013.
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