‘Ohhh!’ Roy Lichtenstein painting pops record at Christie’s in New York

Pop art mainstay Roy Lichtenstein’s painting Ohhh... Alright... sold at Christie’s in New York for a record $42.6 million.

The oil and magna on canvas, painted in 1964, set a new high for the much sought-after artist, whose previous record price was $16.2 million back in 2005.

The cartoon-style painting, featuring a close-up of a beautiful young woman holding a telephone and saying in a speech bubble, Ohhh... Alright..., went to an anonymous phone bidder, Christie’s said.

“Ohhh...Alright... characterises the Lichtenstein’s captivation and inspiration with techniques of commercial printing and reproduction articulated in his signature Ben-Day dots,” Christie’s said.

The sale was the star of the contemporary auction held at Christie’s the day after rival Sotheby’s sold an Andy Warhol painting titled Large Coca Cola for $35.3 million.

Christie’s hotly anticipated sale of another Andy Warhol, Big Campbell’s Soup Can with Can Opener (Vegetable), proved a disappointment. It had been expected to sell for between $30 and $50 million, but eventually went for $23.8 million. On Monday, a Warhol painting featuring Elizabeth Taylor and her husbands, Men in Her Life, sold at Phillips de Pury auctioneers for a huge $63.3 million – not far off the $71.7 million record.