Gauguin painting sells for 39.2 million dollars in New York

The depiction of a Tahitian woman bathing under mango trees had carried a pre-sale estimate of 40 to 60 million dollars and had been expected to beat the record of 40.3 million dollars for a work by the artist, set last year with the 1891 painting "Man with an Axe."

David Norman, co-chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art at Sotheby's described the painting as "a glorious picture in superb condition," in an interview with AFP before the sale.

"Anyone wanting to establish a great 19th and 20th century art collection really can't ignore the monumentality of Gauguin in that scheme of things. It's just that access to them is so limited," he added.

"You could wait 10 or 15 years for a picture like this."