An iconic painting of Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol has been auctioned for $195m (£158.17m) – making it the most expensive piece of 20th Century art ever sold. The painting, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, was painted by Warhol in 1964 using a famous photograph as inspiration. The amount is also the highest ever paid for an American work of art. The Christie’s auction in New York was widely seen as a symbol of the luxury art market’s health. Ahead of the auction, Christie’s wrote that the painting is “one of the rarest and most transcendent images in existence”, with a selling price “in the region” of $200m. The auction ended with a sale price of $170m, which rose to $195m with taxes and fees taken into account. The previous record price for a piece of American artwork was $110.5m for a skull painting created in 1982 by Warhol’s sometimes friend and sometimes competitor, Jean-Michael Basquiat.((NU)…[+]