Modern art auction fetches $240 million

NEW YORK, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Christie's in New York held another record-setting auction this week, with postwar paintings fetching sky-high prices.

Willem de Kooning's 1977 painting, "Untitled XXV" went for $27.1 million Wednesday night, and became "the most expensive postwar painting ever sold at auction," The New York Times reported. The work had been estimated to bring in around $15 million.

Eighteen other artist records were set for postwar and contemporary art.

The well-known painting "Mao" by Andy Warhol was sold to Joseph Lau, a Hong Kong collector, for $17.3 million -- more than $5 million above the estimated price, the Times reported.

The evening's take came to $239.7 million, $20.4 million over the high estimate. Only about 10 percent of the 81 lots failed to sell.

Christie's set records last week resulting in almost $500 million in a sale that featured five works by Gustav Klimt, as well as several other impressionist and modern artists.