Andy Warhol‘s iconic painting of Marilyn Monroe was auctioned for $195 million (£158.17 million), making it the most expensive work of 20th century art ever sold.
The painting, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, was painted by Warhol in 1964 using a famous photograph as inspiration.
The amount is also the highest ever paid for an American work of art.
The Christie’s auction in New York was widely seen as a symbol of the luxury art market’s health.
Ahead of the auction, Christie’s wrote that the painting is “one of the rarest and most transcendent images in existence”, with a selling price “in the region” of $200m.
The auction ended with a sale price of $170m, which rose to $195m with taxes and fees taken into account.
The previous record price for a piece of American artwork was $110.5m for a skull painting created in 1982 by Warhol’s sometimes friend and sometimes competitor, Jean-Michael Basquiat.
The final price also smashes the previous record for a 20th Century work of art, set in 2015 when a 1955 painting by Pablo Picasso – Les Femmes d’Alger (Version O) – sold for $179.4m, including fees.
In March, George Frei, the chairman of the board of the Thomas and Doris Amman Foundation, said in a statement that the painting of Monroe “bears witness to her undiminished visual power in the new millennium”.
“Marilyn Monroe the woman is gone; the terrible circumstances of her life and death are forgotten,” Mr. Frei said. “All that remains is the enigmatic smile that links her to another mysterious smile of a distinguished lady, the Mona Lisa.”
Bloomberg reports that the winning bidder was US art dealer Larry Gagosian, who owns a chain of art galleries.
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