A Pablo Piccaso painting sold for $179.4 million at a Christie’s New York auction on Monday night, setting the record for the highest paid artwork sold at auction.
The painting, called Les Femmes d' Alger, or Women of Algiers (Version O), is full of vibrant colors and was painted in 1955 as part of a 15-piece series. It was inspired by a 1934 work by Eugene Delacroix, which is housed in the Lourve.
The AP reports the previous record is $142.4, for Francis Bacon's Three Studies of Lucian Freud, which sold in 2013.
The bidding started at $100 million and quickly skyrocketed. The painting was eventually purchased by an anonymous buyer on the phone with the global head of postwar art, Brett Gorvy. He was competing with at least three other phone bidders.
Wall Street Journal reports the auction is believed to rake in around or over $320 million. The auction was called "Looking Forward to the Past."