A painting by the American Abstract Expressionist painter Jackson Pollock sold for an eye-watering $181.2 million (€156.2 million) with fees, at Christie's auction house in New York on Monday, alongside other staggering sales on what was a blockbuster day for the institution.
The roughly three-by-one meter (35 × 131.5 inches / 88.9 x 334 centimeters) oil and enamel work on canvas, entitled "Number 7A, 1948," was painted at Pollock's Long Island, New York, studio when the artist was 36 years old and is considered ait was a key early example of his floor‑based drip technique.
Christie's described the postwar work, which consists of black drips with a few red accents, as follows, "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."
The record sale made Pollock's canvas the fourth most expensive artwork ever sold at auction and eclipsed his own previous 2021 auction record of $61.2 million.
"Salvator Mundi," (Savior of the World), a Renaissance work attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, holds the top spot for the most expensive painting ever sold at auction, hauling in $450 million in 2017.
