The painting by David Hockney is sold for 90.3 million records

NEW YORK – A 1972 painting by British artist David Hockney rose to $ 90.3 million on Christie's Thursday, crushing the record at the highest price ever paid at auction for work by a living artist.

With the commission of Christie, "Portrait with an Artist", it exceeded the pre-sales estimate of $ 80 million auctions, after a bidding war between two specific buyers, once work has arrived to 70 million dollars.

The previous record of a work by a live artist was made by Jeff Koons' "Balloon Dog" sculpture, which was sold for $ 58.4 million in 2013. The previous auction record for Hockney was $ 28.4 million.

Hockney's painting shows a man in a pink jacket looking toward another figure swimming under water in a pool. It was reported that it was sent by British retail trader billionaire Joe Lewis.

Christie's did not identify the seller or the successful bidder, who was bidding on the phone.

The work went far enough to boost the success of Christie's post-war art and contemporary art auction, which amounted to a total of 357.6 million dollars, with 41 of the 48 lots on offer to find buyers.

Other highlights included the "Henrietta Moraes Laughing Study" by Francis Bacon, who sold for $ 21.7 million versus a pre-sale estimate of $ 14 million to $ 18 million, and the "21 Feuilles Blanches" by Alexander Calder , which more than doubled its high estimate, just under $ 18 million.