Sotheby’s said the previous auction record for a work by a female artist was $11.9 million, set by U.S. abstract painter Joan Mitchell’s Untitled at rival house Christie’s in New York in May.
The O’Keefe work had been valued before the sale at $15 million but Sotheby’s said it was driven to more than $44.4 million by a prolonged battle between two determined bidders.
O’Keeffe is considered one of the most significant artists of the 20th century and was a prominent avant-garde artist in New York.
She spent much of her life in New Mexico and died in 1986. The previous auction record for one of her works was $6.2 million.
O’Keeffe was celebrated for her flower paintings.
Her Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 oil on canvas was one of three works offered at auction by the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, N.M.
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