$140,000,000

Jackson Pollock is still the Man after all these years...

--ryan



Pollock Work 'Earns Record Price'
A work by Jackson Pollock has become the most expensive painting sold, at a price of about $140m (£73m), according to the New York Times.

Unnamed art experts said that US media magnate David Geffen had sold the 4ft by 8ft work, No 5, 1948, to Mexican financier David Martinez.

The reported price exceeds the $135m (£71m) paid in June for a 1907 portrait by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt.

The Pollock work features the US artist's famous drip-and-pour style.

The deal is said to have been brokered by Sotheby's auctioneer Tobias Meyer.

Jackson Pollock's work had a major influence on art in the latter half of the 20th Century, sparking the emergence of abstract expressionism.

But the artist battled alcoholism and depression and is generally regarded as a self-destructive, tortured genius. He died in a car crash in 1956, aged 44.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/entertainment/6111526.stm

Published: 2006/11/02 18:23:06 GMT

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