Steel sculpture at $25.7 mn record-breaking sale

LONDON: American artist Jeff Koons's sculpture "Balloon Flower (Magenta)" sold for a record-breaking 12.9 million pounds (16.3 million euros, $25.7 million) in an auction on Monday, Christie's said.

The more than 2.75-metre (nine-foot) tall high chromium stainless steel sculpture, mimicking a flower made out of a long balloon similar to those made by party clowns or street artists, was the most expensive work by Koons sold at auction.

It had been estimated to sell for 12 million pounds. In the same auction, Lucian Freud's "Naked Portrait with Reflection" fetched 11.8 million pounds, compared to a pre-sale estimate of between 10 and 15 million pounds.

"Three Studies for a Self Portrait", a rare triptych by Francis Bacon which he painted in Paris in 1975 and which had never been seen in public, sold for 17.29 million pounds, well above its pre-sale estimate of 10 million pounds.

Paintings by Bacon have, in the past, sold for considerably more. "Triptych", painted in 1976, set a record for a painting by the artist when it fetched 86.2 million dollars in an auction in New York in May.

The three sales were the highlights of a post-war and contemporary art sale held by Christie's Monday evening, where a record was also set by Antonio Lopez's "Madrid desde Torres Blancas", which sold for 1.38 million pounds, making it the most expensive work by a living Spanish artist sold at auction.

Last week, Christie's and rival auction house Sotheby's, which between them account for 90 percent of the global art auction market, combined for nearly 300 million pounds worth of impressionist and modern art sales over three days of auctions in London.