A painting of a Chinese restaurant in Manhattan has become the most expensive painting ever sold by American artist Edward Hopper, fetching a staggering $91.9 million.
Chop Suey, a 1929 work by the celebrated New York-born painter, reached a final sale price that more than doubled the previous record for an Edward Hopper painting, formerly held by East Wind Over Weehawken, which sold for $40.4m in 2013.
The work was sold at Christie’s in New York last night, as one of 90 American artworks sold by the estate of US businessman Barney Ebsworth.
The painting shows two women sitting in a Manhattan restaurant, with a sign outside carrying the name “Chop Suey”. Both of the women are thought to have been modelled on Hopper’s wife and fellow artist Josephine Nivinson.
Further works in the sale included Woman as Landscape by Willem de Kooning, which also set a new record for the artist, selling for $68.9m, two million more than the prior record. The collection sold for a total of $317.8 million.
