An oil painting by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso has smashed the record for most expensive work of art.
The Women of Algiers - also known as Les Femmes d'Alger - sold after more than 11 minutes of furious bidding from telephone buyers at a packed auction room at Christie's in New York.
The 1955 Picasso painting is one of the last major paintings by the Spanish master still in private hands.
The previous world record for a painting sold at auction was AU$179 million, set by British painter Francis Bacon's Three Studies of Lucian Freud.
Exponential growth in the art market, particularly for modern and contemporary works, is attributed to a growing number of private investors around the world and burgeoning interest in Asia and the Gulf.
