Article: RECORD PRICE FOR VAN GOGH'S 'IRISES'

NEW YORK - Vincent van Gogh's "Irises," the famous depiction of a flower garden at an asylum the painter entered shortly before he committed suicide, sold Wednesday for a record $53.9 million.

The identity of the buyer, who bid by telephone, was not immediately disclosed.

The previous record for a painting was set by another van Gogh masterpiece, "Sunflowers," which sold for $39.9 million earlier this year to a Japanese insurance company.

"The whole world is looking very closely at the sale of this painting," John L. Marion, chairman of Sotheby's North America, where the "Irises" auction was held, had said earlier. "Some see it as an indicator of what the art market is doing."

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