Emily Kame Kngwarreye's Earth's Creation sold for $1,056,000 at the Lawson-Menzies Aboriginal art auction in Sydney.
The four-panel piece, which was completed in the year before the artist's death in 1996, was sold to Tim Jennings of the Mbantua Gallery in Alice Springs.
Auction house Lawson-Menzies' head of Aboriginal Art, Adrian Newstead, said the sale achieved a world record for the artist and for Australian Aboriginal art.
"The sale more than doubled the artist's former record," Mr Newstead said.
"The result shows the growing strength of the Aboriginal art market as a source of premium investment works."
The former record for Aboriginal art was $775,000 for Rover Thomas' All That Rain Coming Down.
