Record setter: David Hockney painting sells for $90.3M

A painting by David Hockney fetched $90.3 million Thursday night, a record price for a living artist's work, The New York Times reported.

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Hockney's 1972 painting, "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)," sold in nine minutes at Christie's, The Guardian reported.

The British artist's work topped the previous record of $58.4 million, set in 2013 for one of Jeff Koons' "Balloon Dog" sculptures, the Times reported.

The high bid for the 81-year-old artist's work was $80 million but soared to $90,312,500 after the buyer's premium, the Guardian reported.

Bidding quickly reached $70 million among three people in the room and five others calling in, the Times reported. The bidding was decided between two of the telephone callers, the newspaper reported.

"We rarely can say, 'This is the one opportunity to buy the best painting from the artist.' This is it," Ana Maria Celis, vice president of postwar and contemporary art at Christie's, told the Guardian before the auction in Manhattan.

The buyer was not identified.

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Bob D’Angelo, Cox Media Group National Content Desk