Warhol painting sells for $43.7M

NEW YORK, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- "200 One Dollar Bills," one of the late artist Andy Warhol's first silk-screen paintings, has been sold in New York for $43.7 million, Sotheby's said.

The New York Times reported five bidders battled it out Wednesday for the 1962 work, which ultimately sold to an unidentified buyer for three times its high estimate of $12 million.

The estimate does not reflect the commission and fees paid to Sotheby's upon the sale of the piece, however.

"I think the painting was worth it. It was rare and great," Philippe Segalot, a Manhattan art dealer who bid on the work, but lost, told the Times. "And the appealing estimate helped encourage bidding. It was really Warhol's night."