Picasso's Women Of Algiers Smashes World Record For Auctioned Artwork, Sells For $179.4m

A vibrant, multi-hued painting from Pablo Picasso has set a world record for an artwork at auction, selling for $179.4m in New York, while a piece by Alberto Giacometti set a record for the most expensive sculpture.

Picasso's "Women of Algiers (Version O)" and Giacometti's life-size "Pointing Man" were among dozens of masterpieces from the 20th century Christie's offered in a curated sale titled "Looking Forward to the Past."


The Picasso price, $179,365,000, and the Giacometti price, $141,285,000, included the auction house's premium. The buyers elected to remain anonymous.

"Women of Algiers," once owned by the American collectors Victor and Sally Ganz, was inspired by Picasso's fascination with the 19th-century French artist Eugene Delacroix.

It is part of a 15-work series Picasso created in 1954-55 designated with the letters A through to O. It has appeared in several major museum retrospectives of the Spanish artist.

The most expensive artwork sold at auction had been Francis Bacon's "Three Studies of Lucian Freud," which Christie's sold for $142.4m in 2013.