A Lucian Freud portrait of the ex-husband of Britain’s Duchess of Cornwall, Andrew Parker Bowles, sold for $34.89 million in New York, Christie’s said.
The giant oil painting smashed its pre-sale estimate of $30 million on Tuesday. The British artist created it between 2003-04, shortly before Camilla married the Prince of Wales, her longtime lover.
The evening sale of post-war and contemporary art broke world auction records for Italian 20th century artist Lucio Fontana, French-American artist Louise Bourgeois and American, Richard Pousette-Dart.
Fontana’s “Concetto spaziale, La fine di Dio” — a yellow egg slashed in the canvas — sold for $29.17 million, Bourgeois’ “Spider” sculpture for $28.17 million and Pousette-Dart’s “Blood Wedding” for $2.63 million, the auction house said.
Tuesday’s sale came the day after Christie’s sold a sensuous nude by Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani for $170.4 million, making it the second most expensive work of art ever sold at auction.
It was purchased by taxi driver turned billionaire Liu Yiqian, one of China’s biggest art collectors, who founded two museums in Shanghai.