Picasso's Woman of Algiers painting sells for record £114 MILLION in nail-biting auction
A COLOURFUL Picasso painting has sold for a world record £114 million in an auction lasting just 11 minutes.
Picasso's Women of Algiers was last auctioned in 1997 – it tripled the expected price
Picasso's Women of Algiers (Version O) fetched a staggering $179 million on Monday night at Christie's auction house in New York City.
While the final sale price was actually $160 million, a 12 per cent buyer's premium was added to the astonishing total.
The identity of the buyer is not yet known.
The vibrant, multi-coloured painting features a scantily-clad woman surrounded by smaller nudes.
The auction was closed after 11 minutes of furious bidding
Francis Bacon's Three Studies of Lucian Freud previously held the record when it sold for $142.4 million in 2013.
The Picasso painting was among two dozen masterpieces from the 20th century Christie's offered in a curated sale titled "Looking Forward to the Past".
And a sculpture by Alberto Giacometti sold at the same auction for a record $141 million.
The Man Pointing depicts a skinny 5-foot high bronze figure with extended arms.
Last year, Christie's said its global sales of impressionist and modern art were $1.2 billion, an increase of 19 percent over the previous year.