Jackson Pollock painting sells for record $181m at Christie’s in New York

Abstract expressionist’s Number 7A, 1948, becomes the fourth most expensive work ever sold at auction

A Jackson Pollock painting has sold for a record $181.2m (£135.3m) at Christie’s in New York.

The sale on Monday made Number 7A, 1948 the fourth most expensive work ever sold at auction, according to ARTnews.

The previous auction record for a work by Pollock was $61.2m, set in 2021. Other works by the abstract expressionist have sold privately for up to $200m.

“It is with this work that Pollock finally frees himself from the shackles of conventional easel painting and produces one of the first truly abstract paintings in the history of art,” Christie’s said in a statement.

On a busy day for the auction house, Danaïde, a bronze head sculpted by the Romanian-born artist Constantin Brâncuşi in around 1913 sold for $107.6m, topping its previous record of $71.2m set in 2018.

No 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe) by the US painter Mark Rothko sold for $98.4m, and Portrait of Madame K by the Catalan artist Joan Miró for $53.5m.

The sales broke previous records for Rothko (of $86.9m) and Miró ($37m) set in 2012.

Monday’s auction followed a string of records set at Sotheby’s in November last year.

Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, painted by the Austrian master Gustav Klimt between 1914 and 1916, sold for $236.4m, becoming the second most expensive work ever sold at auction.

The Dream (The Bed), 1940, a self-portrait by the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, sold for $54.7m, a record for a painting by a woman.

The most expensive painting ever sold at auction is Salvator Mundi, a Renaissance work attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which was bought for $450m in 2017.