Pablo Picasso ‘Women of Algiers’ Painting Sells for $179 Million, Breaks Records [PHOTO]

Write this one in the record books, folks. It's being reported that a painting from abstract artist Pablo Picasso has sold for an astounding (and record-breaking) $179,365,000 at an auction in New York City. Les femmes d'Alger (Version O), which translates to Women of Algiers, was sold just yesterday, Monday, May 11, 2015, and sets the record for the most expensive sell of contemporary art.

CNN reports that the previous title for this went to Francis Bacon's Three Studies of Lucian Freud, which sold at auction for $142 million back in 2013.

Art lovers and those at Christie's, who conducted the sale, expected the Picasso piece to sell for around $140 million, but were rather blown away when bids went as high as $160 million. With commission and all, it came just under $180 million.

Les Femmes d'Alger features "nude courtesans" amid Picasso's typical cubist style, and while the seller remains anonymous, it was reported that the painting sold for the last time at auction back in 1997 for $31.9 million.

Per a report from The Guardian, the painting is part of a series of 15 that were done in 1954 and 1955. The image was painted as an homage to Picasso's friend, Henri Matisse, according to CNN.

Matisse, of course, was a famous French impressionist.

Take a look at the sale over on the The Guardian.

 Pablo Picasso’s Les Femmes D’alger (Version ‘O’) realized $179,365,000, a #worldauctionrecord for any work of art ever sold at auction. #Picasso #ContemporaryArt #lookingforwardtothepast

A photo posted by CHRISTIE'S (@christiesinc) on May 11, 2015 at 4:38pm PDT