"Naked lying" Modigliani hits record at Christie's

Night of records at Christie's in New York. Starting "Naked lying" (Nu couché), a Modigliani masterpiece, topped by 170.4 million dollars, after nine minutes of fierce auction among seven buyers. It was acquired by Liu Yiqian, a Chinese collector.

Chinese collector Liu Yiqian snaps up Modigliani’s Nu couché for $170 mln at a Christie’s auction in New York Nov 9 pic.twitter.com/i7EP91WCMx

The work thus becomes the most expensive of the Italian painter, is the second most expensive one ever sold at auction.

The first is "Women of Algiers" (version)-"Les femmes d ' Alger version", Picasso sold last may, 179.4 million dollars by Christie's.

Christie's President Jussi Pylkkanen,, does not hide the satisfaction of selling such work: "it's an extraordinary fabric. It's not in the market for more than 100 years. It was painted in 1917, during the first world war and everybody, all the critics and all the people who actually understand the 20TH century painting realized that this is the greatest work of the artist. "

A few minutes later, another world record was beaten: "Nurse" ("Nurse"), Roy Lichtenstein, was auctioned for 95.37 million, supplanting the 56.12 million dollars of "Women with Flowered Hat and becoming the most expensive work of the American master of pop art.

Also record to a wood carving of the Paul Gauguin, which is topped by 30.9 million â€" the most expensive ever French artist.

Both Christie's and Sotheby's-the two main auction houses â€" expect to perform, each more than a billion dollars during the autumn auctions, which began November 4 and end on November 12, in New York.

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