Image source, Getty ImagesThe most expensive piece of 20th Century art ever sold was the Andy Warhol painting of Marilyn Monroe.
Warhol used a famous photograph as inspiration for his painting, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn.
The highest amount ever paid for an American work of art was paid for.
The Christie's auction in New York was seen as a sign of the health of the art market.
Christie's wrote that the painting is one of the most important and rare images in existence, with a selling price in the region of $200 million.
With taxes and fees taken into account, the sale price rose to $195m.
The previous record price for a piece of American artwork was $110.5m for a skull painting created in 1982 by Warhol's sometimes friend and sometimes competitor, Jean-Michael Basquiat.
The previous record for a 20th Century work of art was set in 2015, when a 1955 painting by Picasso - Les Femmes d'Alger (Version O) - sold for $179.4m, including fees.
George Frei, the chairman of the board of the Thomas and Doris Amman Foundation, said in a statement that the painting of Monroe shows her undiminished visual power in the new millennium.
The terrible circumstances of Marilyn's life and death have been forgotten, and she still has an enigmatic smile.
The winning bidder was a US art dealer named Larry Gagosian.
All of the proceeds of the sale will go to the Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation, which works to establish healthcare and education programmes for children around the world.
The first of a series of art auctions planned by Christie's and Sotheby's over the next two weeks is considered to be a test of the luxury art market's health in the post-pandemic era.
There is a huge amount of demand for art according to the founder of the Fine Art Group.
He said that everyone was waiting for the right moment.
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