Picasso's 'Women of Algiers' sold for record breaking $179.3M at auction

Picasso's 'Women of Algiers' has been sold for a record-breaking 179.3 million dollars, becoming the most expensive painting.

At the auction held at Christie's in New York, after 11 minutes of prolonged bidding from telephone buyers, the final sale was for a whopping 179,365,000 dollars, leaving its pre-sale estimate of 140 million dollars far behind, the BBC reported.

The vibrant oil painting, which offers cubist depiction of nude courtesans, is part of a 15-work series the Spanish artist had created in 1954-55 designated with the letters A to O.

The buyers at the auction chose to stay anonymous.

The previous world record was held for British painter Francis Bacon's Three Studies of Lucian Freud, which was sold at auction for 142.4 million dollars in 2013.

Meanwhile, Alberto Giacometti's life-size sculpture Pointing Man, which was also featured at the event, set a record as the most expensive sculpture, at 141.3 million dollars.