Playboy nude watercolour beats antiques valuation to sell for $266k
The piece had an antiques valuation of up to $150,000.
A nude watercolour painted by Salvador Dali has beaten its antiques valuation to sell for $266,000 (£168,679).
The item - which used to hang on the bedroom wall of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner - went under the hammer in New York, the Associated Press reports.
It was expected to fetch between $100,000 and $150,000 and was eventually sold to an anonymous bidder.
The piece was among 125 artworks that went on sale at the Christie's auction yesterday (December 8th) with an oil painting of a scarlet-lipstick mouth by pop artist Tom Wesselmann - entitled Mouth No. 8 - selling for nearly $1.9 million.
What's more, there were 80 photographs sold in total, as well as 24 cartoons and more than a dozen contemporary works.
Last month, Hefner told the news provider the magazine had helped to change the direction of commercial art, adding: "We introduced into commercial illustration the whole notion of everything from abstract to semi-abstract to stuff that you found on a gallery wall."
Posted by John Folwell