​Georgia O'Keeffe Painting Sells For Record Price for a Female Artist

In May this year, an untitled Joan Mitchell painting from 1960 sold at an auction for $11.9 million, setting the record for highest selling artwork by female artist. That is, until Thursday this week, when a 1932 Georgia O’Keeffe painting, Jimson Weed/Whilte Flower No 1 (pictured below), surpassed that, selling for $44.4 million. That’s a lot of money.

Interestingly enough, the painting was sold by the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the “largest single repository of O’Keeffe’s work in the world.” According to Sotheby’s New York, the piece was estimated at $15 million, but BBC reports the price shot up after quite the bidding war between two rivaling bidders. Yo, that’s the type of social rivalry rich people have, huh? I wish I could be so rich that everything I do is pure passive aggression. Sigh. Anyway, the buyer bid by telephone and will remain anonymous for the time being.

For the record (heh), O’Keeffe’s own record was $6.2 million, so hooray for besting her best. Meanwhile, the art auction record is $142.4 million for a Francis Bacon piece.

Images via AP.