A Picasso masterpiece fetched more than $179 million in New York on Monday, smashing the world record for the most expensive art sold at auction in what was dubbed the ‘sale of the century.’ The oil painting, ‘The Women of Algiers (Version 0),’ sold for $179,365,000 after more than 11 minutes of furious bidding from telephone buyers at a packed auction room at Christie’s. Applause erupted when the sale was finalized in an atmosphere of feverish excitement, accompanied by laughter and jokes, fetching way over its pre-sale estimate of $140 million. The previous world record for a painting sold at auction was $142.4 million, set for British painter Francis Bacon’s ‘Three Studies of Lucian Freud,’ which was sold by

Read More: Picasso masterpiece becomes the most valuable work ever sold at auction: $179,365,000