“NU couche” (“Reclining Nude”) was sold at Christie’s in New York to a Chinese collector Monday.

    It had never been sold at auction before, having been in the same private collection for about 60 years.

    The top price achieved for an art work at auction was Picasso’s “Les femmes d’Alger,” which sold for US$179 million.

    “Nu couche,” painted during 1917 and 1918, was estimated to fetch more than US$100 million before the auction took place. The price achieved was also a record for the artist.

    Chinese billionaire Liu Yiqian confirmed to the New York Times that he had purchased the painting.

    About half a dozen bidders competed for the Modigliani at the sale, which also included 33 other works, such as Paul Gauguin’s sculpture “Therese,” which sold for US$30,965,000.

    Roy Lichtenstein’s “Nurse” fetched US$95,365,000, a new world auction record for the artist and was the second-biggest seller of the night.

    The sale took the auction total to US$494.4 million but it was not all good news — nearly 30 percent of the works up for grabs went unsold, including Lucian Freud’s “Naked Portrait on a Red Sofa,” which was estimated at as much as US$30 million but failed to sell.

    Jussi Pylkkanen, Christie’s global president said the sale of “Nu couche” was “well-deserved recognition for the artist to have realized a price US$100m higher than any other (Modigliani) work previously offered at auction.”

    While Picasso and Modigliani are the top two sales at auction, the most expensive work of art ever sold was a Paul Gauguin work which fetched US$300 million earlier this year. “Nafea Faa Ipoipo,” or “When Will You Marry?” was painted in 1892 and was sold privately.(SD-Agencies)