Magritte painting sells for record amount at auction

A painting by Rene Magritte has sold at auction in New York for $26.8 million (€23.7 million) - a new record for the Belgian artist's work.

The oil-on-canvas Pleasure Principle (Portrait of Edward James), which Magritte painted in Brussels in 1937, had been estimated to fetch between $15 and $20 million.

Sotheby's auction house said an "unusually high number" of different collectors had bid for the piece.

It beats the previous auction record set for a Magritte painting - La Corde Sensible - which sold last year in London for £14.4 million (€16.5 million).