Pollock's drip technique painting was expected to fetch between $5m and $7m

Entitled Number 12, 1949, the Pollock painting was sold by the Museum of Modern Art to an anonymous buyer.

The Post-War and Contemporary Art sale at Christie's, which included works by Mark Rothko and Andy Warhol, clocked up a record $102.11m (�58m) in sales.

The success of the sale was attributed to the flourishing economy.

The previous record for the artist was $11.55m (�6.55m).

The 1958 Rothko oil painting, titled No. 15, sold for $8.96m (�5.08m), with Warhol's self-portrait going for $6.95m (�3.94m).

Christie's auctioneer Christopher Burge said works by Impressionist and post-Impressionist artists were becoming more rare while the contemporary catalogue was continuing to add new artists.

World record

Of the 67 lots offered by Christie's, 60 were sold.

Christie's previous sales record for post-war and contemporary art was $89m (�50.47m) in 2003.

Last week, a 1905 masterpiece by Pablo Picasso sold for $104m (�58m), making it the world's most expensive painting.

Garcon a la Pipe - or Boy with a Pipe - was sold to an anonymous bidder at Sotheby's in New York.

The sale beat the $82.5m (�46m) paid for Vincent Van Gogh's Portrait of Doctor Gachet, sold in 1990.