Jackson Pollock’s Number 7A, 1948 sold for $181 million at Christie’s in New York on Monday, setting a new auction record for the artist and making the work the fourth most expensive artwork ever sold at auction, according to ARTnews.

The painting, from the private collection of media magnate SI Newhouse, was auctioned by Christie’s alongside a bronze sculpture by Constantin Brancusi that brought $107.6 million. That result made Danaide the second highest amount a sculpture has ever gone for at auction.

Christie’s described Number 7A, 1948 as one of history’s first truly abstract paintings and said Pollock had “finally frees himself from the shackles of conventional easel painting and produces one of the first truly abstract paintings in the history of art.” The house also said the work is a key piece of art history, showing black drips of paint with touches of red across a canvas spanning more than three metres.

Pollock, who died in 1956, was a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement, and his drip painting technique remains one of the art world’s most recognisable and often imitated styles. The previous auction record for a Pollock work was $61.2 million for Number 17, 1951, sold in 2021.

The sale was part of a Christie’s auction that also included works by Mark Rothko and Joan Miro, both of which set new auction records for those artists. Christie’s said Number 7A, 1948 had passed through some of the most important art collections of the past half century, adding another layer to a result that underlined how far the market is still willing to go for landmark modern art.