 'Les femmes d`Alger' is the most expensive oil painting in auction history. | A Picasso oil painting from 1955 smashed the record for the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction when it soared to $179.4 million at Christie's on May 12, 2015. The record-setting Picasso was last auctioned in 1997, selling for $32m. Bidding started this time at $100m, with deep-pocketed collectors driving the price upward in $1m increments. |
 | The most expensive work of art previously sold at auction had been Francis Bacon's triptych "Three Studies of Lucian Freud," which sold for $142.4 million at Christie's in November 2013. Another Picasso, "Buste de femme (Femme a la resille)", made $67.4m. |  |
 | Giacometti's 1947 sculpture, "L'homme au doigt" (Pointing man), set a world record for a sculpture, selling for $141.3 million, in line with the pre-sale estimate of about $130 million. The previous record of $104.3 million had been held by Giacometti's "L'Homme qui marche I". |  |
|
