Van Gogh's penultimate piece of artwork, which he painted only weeks before his death, got sold for a whopping $61.8 million Tuesday while Alberto Giacometti's sculpture collected $100 million.

The two sales were the highlight of New York City's fall art auctions of impressionist and modern art.

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Van Gogh's 1890 painting, 'Still Life, Vase With Daisies and Poppies,' was only expected to sell between $30 million and $50 million at Sotheby's evening sale in Manhattan. He painted his work, which is a bouquet of wildflowers he saw in the home of his physician, Dr. Paul Gachet, in 1890 in France. This work was one of the very few items the painter sold during his lifetime.

Tycoon Wang Zhongjun of Huayi Brothers Media Corp. won in the auction.

The painting came into the possession of A. Conger Goodyear, a Museum of Modern Arts founder. He acquired the painting in 1928, which was then passed on to his family until it was placed at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo for 30 years for exhibition purposes. The painting's last owner bought it around the year 1990.

The highest amount paid for a van Gogh painting was $82.5 million.

However, the biggest seller in the Sotheby's auction was Giacometti's 'Chariot,' which fetched $101 million.  It is a rare 1951 bronze sculpture of an elongated goddess-looking figure on top a wheeled chariot. The price almost surpassed the sculptor's $104.3 million sale. 

TagsVincent van Gogh