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A 1969 Francis Bacon triptych was sold for 142.4 million US at Christie's on November 12, 2003 in New York making it the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction.

William Acquavella, the New York dealer, was thought to have bought the painting on behalf of an unidentified client after overbidding his rival Larry Gagosian.

The painting showing Lucian Freud, Bacon's friend and then rival, seated on a wooden chair, far exceeded the pre-sale estimate thus toppling the previous record of 119,9 million USD set in May 2012 at Sotheby's for Edvard Munch's  pastel of "The Scream". Bacon's previous world record stood at 86,2 million USD for a 1976 truptych bought by the Russian millionaire Roman Abramovitch.

Christie's  sale totalled 691.5 million USD, well above the 670.4 million overall estimate, becoming the most expensive auction ever thus  crushing the 495 million total set at Christie's in May.

Of the 69 works on offer, only six failed to sell. While 10 world record prices were achieved for Bacon, Christopher Wool, Ad Reinhardt, Donald Judd and Willem de Kooning.

Jeff Koon's 10-foot-tall mirror-polished stainless steel sculpture titled "Balloon Dog (Orange)" sold  for 58.4 million USD, above its high $55 million estimate, becoming the most expensive work by a living artist sold at auction. This lot was offered for sale by Peter M. Brant, the newsprint magnate, in order to raise money to endow his Greenwich, Conn., foundation. In the 1990s, Mr. Koons had created the sculpture in an edition of five, each in a different colour, the yellow one being owned by Steven A. Cohen, the hedge-fund billionaire, yje blue one by Eli Broad, the Los Angeles financier, the magenta version by François Pinault, the French luxury goods magnate and owner of Christie's, and the red by Dakis Joannou, the Greek industrialist.

Another consequent bid was recorded for Andy Warhol's "Coca Cola [3]," one of only four paintings of a single Coca-Cola bottle produced by the artist in 1961 and 1962. which fetched 57.2 million USD. It had been estimated to sell for $40 million to $60 million.

Having been acquired in 1992 for 1,1 million USD at Christie's in 1992, Mark Rothko's "No. 11 (Untitled)," an abstract painting in an orange palette created in 1957 sold for 46 million USD in favour of Christophe van de Weghe, a Manhattan dealer who also bought for 26,4 million USD"Apocalypse Now," by Christopher Wool, whose work is currently the subject of a major retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum. Created in 1988, the white canvas is filled with the words "Sell the House Sell the Car Sell the Kids," a line from the Francis Ford Coppola movie of the same title.

Jussi Pylkkänen, chairman of Christie's Europe and the evening's auctioneer, said happily that the market remained strong thanks to the quality of works offered to buyers from the U.S, Asia and Europe.

The  top  lot  of  the  sale  was  the  highly  anticipated  Francis  Bacon  Three  Studies  of  Lucian  Freud,  1969,which  achieved a stunning  142,405,000 USD  (£89,715,150/€105,379,700)  after  fierce  bidding  between  two telephone  bidders  plus  a  persistent  client  in  the  saleroom,  which  burst  into  applause  when  the  hammer came down, setting the new world auction record for any work of art ever sold at auction.

The  sale  offered a dialogue between  two  masters  of  Pop,  Andy  Warhol,  with  Coca-Cola  [3],  and  Jeff Koons, with his Balloon Dog (Orange), from two different generations, standing side by side in the evening sale:

Andy Warhol shone  throughout  the  sale  with seven  works  produced  at  key  moments  in  his  career,  and the  results  confirm  that  he  remains  the  dominant  star  of  the  contemporary  art  market.  One  of  the highlights  of  the  sale  was  an  iconic  hand-painted  Coca-Cola  bottle,  one  of  the  artist‟s  earliest  works  that defines the Pop generation.  Coca Cola [3] , an historic work which achieved  57,285,000 USD (£26,089,550/ €42,390,900).

Among the works by Warhol was a masterwork consigned by the Daimler Art Collection: Mercedes-Benz W 196  R  Grand  Prix  Car  (Streamlined  Version,  1954),  executed  in  1987  just  two  weeks  before  the  artist's death.  This  monumental work—standing  nearly  14  feet  tall—was  produced  to  mark the  occasion  of  the 100-year  anniversary  of  the  invention  of  the  modern  automobile,  and  was  sold  for  $13,045,000 (£8,218,350/  €9,653,300). 

“Seductive  Girl “ by  Roy Lichtenstein  fetched  31,525,000 USD  (£19,860,750/  €23,328,500), the  highest  price  for  a  post-1960s  work  by  the artist while  “16,  1949”,  by  Jackson  Pollock  sold  for  32,645,000 USD  (£20,566,350  /  €24,157,300), the  third highest price for the artist at auction. 

Willem de Kooning's  “Untitled VIII”,  a mesmerizing work of endless fascination,  realized  a record price of 32,085,000 USD  (£20,213,550  /  €23,742,900)

 Acquired by the renowned architect Robert A. M Stern from the artist in 1968, Donald  Judd's  “Untitled “ (DSS  42)  set  a  world  record  price  for  the  artist  at  auction  with  14,165,000 USD (£8,923,950 / €10,482,100 while Lucio  Fontana's  “Concetto  spaziale,  La  fine  di  Dio”,  a  rare  egg-shaped  oil  painting,  was  bought  by Dominique  Lévy  Fine  Arts  for  the  record  price  of  20,885,000 USD  (£13,157,550  /  €15,454,900). 

The  international  demand  for  works  by  contemporary  artists  was  extremely  strong,  especially  notable  in the  bidding  for  “Untitled,  1982”,  by  Jean-Michel  Basquiat,  which  sold  for  29,285,000 USD  (£18,449,550  / €21,670,900).  The  regal-looking  figure,  part  king,  skeleton,  boxer  and  self-portrait,  is  one  of  the  most striking images in contemporary art history. Another work by Basquiat, “Untitled” (Head of Madman), 1982, a  work  on  paper  mounted  on  linen,  exceeded  the  artist's  record  for  the  medium  when  it  sold  for 12,037,000 USD (£7,583,310 / €8,907,380),.

Among the most anticipated lots of the sale was “Apocalypse Now” (“SELL THE HOUSE, SELL THE CAR, SELL THE  KIDS”),  recognized  as  the  most  important  painting  by Christopher  Wool,  which  sold  to  Van  de Weghe  Ltd.  for  26,485,000 USD  (£16,685,550  /  €19,598,900),  setting  a  new  world  auction  record  for  the artist.

The  sale  started  with  Wade  Guyton's  Untitled, one of  the  rare  examples  with  the  artist's  signature motif to be presented at auction,  which rocketed to 2,405,000 USD (£1,515,150  / €1,779,700), achieving a world auction record for the artist.