New Art At Auction Record $160 Million For Pablo Picasso's Les femmes d'Alger (Version 'O')

Christie's NY just sold Pablo Picasso's Les femmes d'Alger (Version 'O') for a new record for art at auction with a hammer price of $160 million.

The bidding opened at $100 million and rose rather quickly to $120 million in $5 million increments.  Bidding increments then went in increments of $1 million up to $130 million with only a few exceptions of bid increments of over $1 million. At $159 million the auctioneer accepted a $159.5 bid, and the next $500,000 increase brought the winning bid at $160 million.

If I calculated the commissions correctly, the final price should be near $179,365,000. The painting was last sold by Chirstie's in the 1997 Victor and Sally Ganz sale for $31.9 million.

The most expensive artwork sold at auction currently is held by Francis Bacon’s Three Studies of Lucian Freud, which Christie’s sold for $142.4m in 2013.

I will have more on the evening sale auction results tomorrow after the sales prices are posted and analyzed.