Picasso and the world's most expensive artworks

A painting by Pablo Picasso has become the most expensive piece of art to ever sell at auction. Picasso's Women of Algiers (Version O) sold for $179.3m (£115m) at Christie's in New York last night, amid rising world demand from collectors for masterpieces.

The bidding took place between five telephone buyers, "to a medley of whoops, hollers and gasps", reports the New York Times. Christie's evening auction also featured Alberto Giacometti's life-size sculpture Pointing Man, which set a record as the most expensive sculpture sale at auction, $141.3m (£90m).

Recent high value auction sales have been attributed to low interest rates and investment purchases by new and established collectors among the world's wealthiest 0.1 percent.

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We look at some of the highest known prices paid for works of art.

Paul Gauguin's When Will You Marry?

Buyers have paid much higher prices in private sales than at auctions, but many of these deals are disputed or shrouded in secrecy. In February this year Gauguin's 1892 oil painting was sold at the highest price ever for a work of art: $300m, (£197m). It was sold privately by major Swiss art collector Rudolf Staechelin to an unknown buyer.

Paul Cezanne's The Card Players

The Qatari royal family bought Cezanne's 1890s painting of two workers hunched over a card game for $250m (£158.4m). The sale took place in 2011 and doubled the previous record, but details of the secret deal only emerged in February 2012.

Francis Bacon's Three Studies of Lucian Freud

The previous all-time highest auction sale was the $142.4m (£89.3m) paid at Christie's for Francis Bacon's Three Studies of Lucian Freud in November 2013. The buyer was Elaine Wynn, co-founder of the Wynn casino empire.

Jackson Pollock's No. 5

In a secret deal brokered by Sotheby's in 2006, Mexican financier David Martinez is said to have bought Pollock's abstract drip painting on fibreboard. The [2]New York Times reported the sale by Dreamworks co-founder David Geffen for $140m (£89m), but Martinez's law firm has denied he bought the work.

Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I

Cosmetics magnate Ronald S Lauder broke the record for the highest sum ever paid for a painting in July 2006 when he paid $135m (£85.7m) for Gustav Klimt's 1907 work, Portrait of Adele Block-Bauer 1.

There are many other masterpieces in public collections that are potentially far more valuable than those listed above, but are unlikely to be sold. As price and value are often considered synonymous, it is hard to accurately estimate the worth of many artworks held by museums, but some are said to be worth over £1bn.

An article in the Daily Mail last year raised the possibility that the Mona Lisa, currently held in France's Louvre museum, could be sold to alleviate France's financial woes.

The painting is often called "priceless" but was valued at £60m in 1962 for insurance purposes. With inflation and the recent surge in art prices factored in, the Mail estimates the artwork could now be worth around £1.5bn - or almost one per cent of France's national debt.

It is unlikely that the masterpiece's worth will ever be tested, however, as French laws protect collections held in public museums from being sold.