A nude paint that is the largest produced by Italian artist, Amedeo Modigliani, sold for $157.2m (N56.7bn) in New York on Monday night, becoming the fourth most expensive work of art sold at auction.

Painted a century ago, Modigliani’s masterpiece “Nu couche (sur le cote gauche)” fetched the highest price in Sotheby’s history and was the star single lot in the May art auction season in New York

Modigliani follows Leonardo da Vinci and Pablo Picasso as the third highest-selling artist at auction. Monday’s sale failed to eclipse the $170.4 million paid for another Modigliani nude at Christie’s in 2015.

Nearly 58 inches (147 centimeters) wide, the picture was the cover star of a recent retrospective at the Tate Modern gallery in London.

Modigliani reinvented the nude for the modern era, and when his series of paintings were first exhibited in 1917, they were considered so shocking that police closed the show in Paris.

Bidding was restrained, lasting three to four minutes and opening at $125 million before auctioneer Helena Newman brought the hammer down at $139 million. The final price includes a buyer’s premium.

The price chalks up a healthy profit for its seller, who acquired the picture in 2003 for $26.9 million.

Modigliani completed 22 reclining nudes and 13 seated nudes between 1916 and 1919. Most of the former are found in museums, such as The Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Simon Shaw, co-head of impressionist and modern art at Sotheby’s, said the painting sold Monday, while rooted in tradition, reflected the changing status of women during World War I.

“This is a nude of a very self-possessed, sexually confident woman, who is not looking out from a distance. She’s absolutely meeting our gaze,” he told AFP prior to the sale.

Modigliani’s dealer, Leopold Zborowski gave him a stipend of 15 francs a day and paid the models five francs to pose in a Paris apartment.

Source: Punchng.com

I saw this on Al Jazeera yesterday, it beats my imagination why someone would pay $157.2m for a nude painting.

one tin is certain, nudity sells

I'm sure the buyer will be masturbating to this.

Na bad thing the sell pass na...

A work of art in deed. Conceived in an era of conservatism(over 100yrs) which abhored nudity..... It is worth every single penny.

iyblaq:
I saw this on Al Jazeera yesterday, it beats my imagination why someone would pay $157.2m for a nude painting.

whenever I think of this picture, I can't help but laugh, even on the road

lordm:
whenever I think of this picture, I can't help but laugh, even on the road

The buyer does not know what to do with his money

This is a case of money miss road

Sometimes being a Nigerian especially has some advantage, d poverty,heat,corruption,everything naija is known for has opened our eyes... spending such amount for mere painting is beyond stupidity....

Sorry ho. But where is the nude theere
All I could see is bombom. otan!

Something a student at Idi araba will draw and sell for 20000 is what someone is buying at a ridiculous amount.

Can it stand the test of fire or water?

And you say the whites are okay upstairs? Ogbeni, say something else...

The painting is trying to say a big "F" you to all the things that were frowned upon then. Nudity, plus sized women blah blah.

I hear some of these paintings carry secret codes that's why people lock horns to buy them.

SoapQueen:
The painting is trying to say a big "F" you to all the things that were frowned upon then. Nudity, plus sized women blah blah.

I hear some of these paintings carry secret codes that's why people lock horns to buy them.

Probably true with the secret code thing cos i see no reason why a sane man would spend such a ridiculous amount on nude painting