Francis Bacon's painting "Three Studies of Lucian Freud" became the most expensive work of art ever sold when it fetched $142.4 million in one of the biggest auctions in history at which Christie's sold more than $691 million worth of art.

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Bacon's 1969 triptych, never before offered at auction and which carried a pre-sale estimate of about $85 million, easily eclipsed the $119.9 million price of Edvard Munch's "The Scream," achieved in May last year at Sotheby's.

The auction of 69 works of post-war and contemporary art also took in $691,583,000, including commission, far above the estimated $480 million to $670 million, making it the most expensive auction in history and eclipsing Christie's sale of contemporary art in May which totaled $495 million.

The sale set yet another significant record, for a price achieved at auction by any living artist, when Jeff Koons' large sculpture, "Balloon Dog (Orange)," fetched $58.4 million. The price beat the high pre-sale estimate and smashed the old record for a living artist of $37.1 million set by Gerhard Richter's "Domplatz, Mailand (Cathedral Square, Milan)" in May.

Bacon's three-panel work depicts the Dublin-born painter's friend and fellow artist Lucian Freud on a chair, with a view from each side and one face-on. Christie's called it "a true masterpiece that marks Bacon and Freud's relationship" and their "creative and emotional kinship."

"Three Studies of Lucian Freud" is also one of only two existing full-length triptychs of Freud, a grandson of the founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud. The three panels were separated for 15 years in the 1970s before being reunited. The previous record for a Bacon work was $86.3 million.

When the bidding started on Tuesday at $80 million, at least five hands shot up before a protracted bidding war in the packed New York salesroom and via telephone brought the hammer price to $127 million, before commission.

The successful bidder was the Acquavella Gallery, which could have been bidding on behalf of a client.