NEW YORK

A painting by Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani fetched $170.4 million at an auction in New York, becoming the second highest price ever paid at auction for an artwork.

Nu couché (Reclining Nude), painted during 1917 and 1918, was sold at Christie’s auction house to a Chinese buyer after a 9-minute bidding battle Monday night.

The modernist masterpiece also eclipsed the previous auction record for the artist by almost $100 million.

Modigliani's painting is one of a series of 30 large female nudes that caused a scandal when they were displayed at the artist's first and only solo exhibition in Paris in December 1917.

Judging the nudes indecent, police demanded the immediate closure of the show.

Chinese art collector Liu Yiqian confirmed to the New York Times that he was the buyer of the painting.

Liu told the newspaper that he planned to bring the work to Shangai, where he and his wife have two private museums.

The highest price achieved at an auction was Pablo Picasso's Les Femmes d’Alger, which sold for $179.4 million at Christie's in May.