The autumn art auction season has wrapped up in New York with successful sales of just over $2 billion albeit in a more cautious market than the bonanza records chalked up in the spring. The star of the season was an Amedeo Modigliani nude, "Nu Couche" - which went for an eye-watering $170.4 million at Christie's.
The second most expensive piece of art ever sold at auction, the Modigliani nude was bought by Chinese taxi driver turned billionaire Liu Yiqian, one of his country's biggest art collectors.
The record, also set by Christie's earlier this year, is held by Pablo Picasso's "The Women of Algiers (Version 0)," which fetched a staggering $179.4 million in a record-breaking spring season.
The fall's second highlight was Roy Lichtenstein's iconic pop art "Nurse," which Christie's sold for $95.37 million in the same auction.