It was the top lot of the season so far, proving a savvy investment for the Republican party donor who paid just USD 3 million for the canvas in 1984 and later discovered he had got two for the price of one.
Sotheby's had valued the canvas, "La Gommeuse," at USD 60 million. It was painted in Paris in 1901 when the artist was just 19 years old and grieving the suicide of a close friend.
It was a lucrative night for Koch. Just minutes earlier, at the same auction, Sotheby's sold his Monet "Water Lilies" study in oil for USD 33.85 million, clearing its minimum pre-sale estimate of USD 30 to 50 million.
Another highlight was a Vincent van Gogh, which sold for USD 54 million. "Paysage sous un ciel mouvemente" (moving sky over a landscape) was painted a year before the artist's death and shows storm clouds over fields outside Arles, France.
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Yesterday's auction saw Sotheby's kick back with a strong performance after starting the fall season with a rather sluggish evening sale on Wednesday of USD 377 million worth of art collected by self-made billionaire Alfred Taubman, a former Sotheby's chairman.
Taubman did a brief spell in jail in 2002 for price fixing.
Christie's and Sotheby's go head to head in a week of auction sales six months after the spring season smashed a string of records and netted more than USD 2.6 billion for the rival auction houses.
Both go under the hammer at Christie's.