Jeff Koons' iconic Balloon Dog sculpture has grabbed the title of the world's most valuable artwork by a living artist to be sold at auction.
It sold for $58.4m in Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Art sale in New York last night (November 12).
 The instantly recognisable Balloon Dog is the definitive symbol of Koons' career |
The piece topped the previous record - held by Gerhard Richter's Domplatz, Mailand at $37.1m - by an outstanding 57.4%. It was originally valued at $35-55m.
The 12-foot high Balloon Dog was described by Christie's as "one of the most recognisable images in today's canon of art history", and was sold with proceeds going to The Brant Foundation Art Study Centre.
See Wikicollecting's top 10 list of Jeff Koons' art sold at auction.
 Rarely did Andy Warhol handpaint any of his works, with the majority being mass produced silkscreen prints |
Following Koons was Andy Warhol's Coca-Cola (3), a similarly iconic work from the world's top-selling artist, which sold for $57.2m, approaching its $60m high estimate.
The piece is one of only a few to have been handpainted by Warhol, and originates from the collection of Jose Mugrabi - owner of the world's largest private Warhol collection.
Sotheby's will follow the sale by offering Warhol's Silver Car Crash, which is expected to see more than $60m tonight.
View the Top 10 Andy Warhol paintings from Wikicollecting.
 The work hails from a key year in Rothko's career and bears all the hallmarks of his finest paintings |
Mark Rothko's No. 11 (untitled) also put in a strong performance, the 1957 work topping its $35m estimate by 31.4% to sell for $46m. However, it is a far cry from the record for Rothko's work, which was set at Christie's in May 2012 at $86.9m.
The stand out lot of the auction was Francis Bacon's Three Studies of Lucian Freud, which made $142.4m to become the most valuable artwork ever sold at auction.
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