Picasso painting smashes auction record selling for $179.4 mln in N.Y.

The auction house had estimated the 1955 cubist oil "Les femmes d'Alger (Version "O")" would sell for about $140 million, but several bidders competing via telephone drove the winning bid to $160 million, for a final price of $179,365,000 including Christie's commission of just over 12 percent.

Previously the most expensive work sold at auction was Francis Bacon's triptych "Three Studies of Lucian Freud," which sold for $142.4 million at Christie's in November 2013. (Reporting by Chris Michaud in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)