Summary Sotheby's called a new auction world record for any female artist
NEW YORK: (AFP) - A painting by late American artist Georgia O Keeffe sold for more than $44.4 million in New York on Thursday, which Sotheby s called a new auction world record for any female artist.
Sotheby s said the previous auction record for a work by a female artist was $11.9 million, set by US abstract painter Joan Mitchell s "Untitled" at rival house Christie s in New York in May.
The O Keefe work had been valued before the sale at $15 million but Sotheby s said it was driven to more than $44.4 million by a prolonged battle between two determined bidders.
O Keeffe is considered one of the most significant artists of the 20th century and was a prominent avant-garde artist in New York.
She spent much of her life in New Mexico and died in 1986. The previous auction record for one of her works was $6.2 million.
O Keeffe was celebrated for her flower paintings.
Her "Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1" oil on canvas was one of three works offered at auction by the Georgia O Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
