A Picasso painting smashed the record for the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction on Monday when it soared to $179.4 million at Christie's. The auction house had estimated the 1955 cubist oil 'Les femmes d'Alger (Version 'O')' would sell for about $140 million, but several bidders competing via telephone drove the winning bid to $160 million, for a final price of $179,365,000 including Christie's commission of just over 12 percent. Previously the most expensive work sold at auction was Francis Bacon's triptych 'Three Studies of Lucian Freud,' which sold for $142.4 million at Christie's in November 2013.
