Koji Inoue, head of evening sales at Christie's, talks about Yves Klein's FC 1 (Fire-Color 1) on display at Christie's in New York on May 4, 2012 during a preview of the Post War and Contemporary Art sale. Photo: AFP.

NEW YORK (AP).- An iconic painting by French artist Yves Klein created with water, a blowtorch and two models has sold at a New York City auction for $36.4 million.

Christie's auction house said "FC 1" set an auction record for the artist Tuesday night. The painting was sold to a buyer who wishes to remain anonymous, Christie's said.

The painting was executed a few weeks before the artist's death in 1962 at age 34 and is considered to be his masterpiece. It was offered for sale by an anonymous Swiss collector.

The previous Klein record was for his "MG 9," which sold for $23.5 million at Sotheby's in 2008.

Klein invited the media to observe the creation of "FC 1," which was videotaped and featured in a documentary on the artist titled "La Revolution Bleue."

It shows Klein dousing two models with water as they press their bodies against a fire-resistant board. As they step away, he points a blowtorch at the surface, and the moistened areas resist scorching.

The models then coat their bodies with paint and again press themselves against the flame-licked board, leaving impressions of their breasts and thighs. Klein then applies blue and splashes of pink pigment around the silhouettes.

The painting "embodies Klein's obsession with the irreconcilable concept of presence and absence, life and death," said Loic Gouzer, Christie's post-war and contemporary art specialist.

It has been included in major museum retrospectives of the artist, including at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C.

Among other highlights at the sale was Mark Rothko's "Orange, Red, Yellow," which had been in the collection of the late philanthropist David Pincus of Philadelphia and for years on loan at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It sold for $86.8 million, a record for the artist.

Christie's said it was the most important Rothko to come on the market since 2007 when "White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose)" from the David Rockefeller collection sold for $72.8 million, the previous record.

Mark Rothko, Orange, Red, Yellow, oil on canvas, painted in 1961 Price Realized: $86,882,500 WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR ANY CONTEMPORARY WORK OF ART WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR THE ARTIST. Bought by an anonymous.

Jackson Pollock, Number 28, 1951, signed and dated '51 Jackson Pollock' (lower edge); signed again twice, titled and dated again twice 'Jackson Pollock 1951 #28' (on the stretcher and on the reverse), oil on canvas , 30 1/8 x 54 1/8 in. (76.5 x 137.4 cm.) Painted in 1951. Price Realized: $23,042,500. WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR THE ARTIST.  Bought by an anonymous

Provenance: New Gallery, New York
Heinz Berggruen, Paris
Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Maremont, Winnetka
Harold and Hester Diamond, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner. Property from the Estate of David Pincus

Literature: B. Robertson, Jackson Pollock: New York, New York, 1960, pl. 165 (illustrated).
S. Hunter, "The Maremont Collection," Art International, vol. 5-6, June-August 1961, p. 37 (illsutrated).
W. Rubin, "Jackson Pollock and the Modern Tradition," Artforum 5, no. 8, April 1967, p. 19 (illustrated).
M. Imdhal, "Is It a Flag or Is It a Painting," Wallraf-Richartz-Jahrbuch, no. 31, 1969, p. 207 (illustrated).
F.V. O'Conner and E.V. Thaw, eds., Jackson Pollock: A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Drawings and Other Works, vol. 2, New Haven, 1978, p. 168, no. 346 (illustrated).
F.V. O'Conner and E.V. Thaw, eds., Jackson Pollock: A Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Drawings and Other Works, vol. 4, New Haven, 1978, p. 261, fig. 68 (illustrated).
F. Stella, Working Space, Cambridge, 1986, pp. 82-83 (illustrated). D. Wigal, Pollock: Veiling the Image, Singapore, 2006 (illustrated in color).

Exhibited: Manhasset Art Association, How to Look at Abstract Art, 4 February 1952.
Paris, Studio Paul Facchetti, Jackson Pollock, March 1952, no. 65.
Washington, D.C., Washington Gallery of Modern Art, Treasures of the 20th Century: The Maremont Collection, April-May 1961, no. 114 (illustrated).
New York, Museum of Modern Art, Jackson Pollock, April-June 1967.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia Collects Art Since 1940, September-November 1986, p. 56 (illustrated).
Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art, Individuals: A Selected History of Contemporary Art, 1945-1986, December 1986-January 1988.
Philadelphia Museum of Art (on extended loan). 

Barnett Newman, Onement V, signed and dated 'Barnett Newman 1952' (on the reverse) , oil on canvas, 60 x 38 in. (152.4 x 96.5 cm.). Painted in 1952.. Price Realized: $22,482,500. WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR THE ARTIST. Bought by an anonymous

Provenance: Collection of the artist
Mr. and Mrs. Stephen D. Paine, Boston, 1962
Harold and Hester Diamond, New York
Annalee Newman, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1988. Property from the Estate of David Pincus

Literature: T. Hess, "The Force of Barnett Newman," Intellectual Digest, June 1972, p. 45.
R. Rosenblum, Modern Painting and the Northern Romantic Tradition: Freidrich to Rothko, London, 1975, pp. 210-211.
H. Rosenberg, Barnett Newman, New York, 1978, pp. 67 and 78, no. 79 (illustrated in color).
H. Rosenberg, "La Sculpture de Barnett Newman," Art Press, no. 35, March 1980, p. 12.
F. Meyer, "Zur Gültigkeit des Christusbildes in der ugegenständlichen Kunst: Die Kreuzwegstationen Barnett Newmans," Kirche und Kunst, no. 2, June 1982, p. 64.
J. Mundy, "The Beginning," in Creation: Modern Art and Nature, exh. cat., Edinburgh, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, 1984, p. 25 (illustrated in color).
P. Negri, "Signs of Being: A Study of the Religious Significance of the Art of Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko," Th.D. Thesis, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, 1990, p. 158. 
R. Francis, "Barnett Newman," in Negotiating Rapture: The Power of Art to Transform Lives, exh. cat., Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, 1996, pp. 140 and 147 (illustrated in color). 
M. McNickle, "The Mink and Art of Barnett Newman," Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1996, p. 237. 
R. Rubinstein, "Versions of Rapture," Art in America, 84, no. 9, September 1996, pp. 70-72 (illustrated in color). 
Y.A. Bois, "Here to There and Back," Artforum, March 2002, p. 105.
N. Denny, "Nothing to It," New Statesman, 7 October 2002, p. 41 (illustrated in color). 
M. Godfrey, "At Onement: Jewish Approaches to the Art of Barnett Newman," The Jewish Quarterly, Winter 2002, p. 19 (illustrated). 
R. Shiff, C. Mancusi-Ungaro and H. Colsman-Freyberger, Barnett Newman: A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven, 2004, pp. 248-249, no. 58 (illustrated in color).

Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild (798-3), signed, numbered and dated '798-3 Richter 1993' (on the reverse), oil on canvas, 94½ x 94½ in. (240 x 240 cm.). Painted in 1993. Price Realised: $21,810,500. WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR THE ARTIST. Bought by an anonymous.

Provenance: Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1994. Property from a Private East Coast Collection

Literature: Gerhard Richter, exh. cat., London, Anthony d'Offay Gallery, 1998, no. 798-3 (illustrated in color).
A. Zweite, Gerhard Richter: Catalogue Raisonné 1993-2004, New York, 2005, p. 309, no. 798-3 (illustrated in color). 

Gerhard Richter, Seestüeck (Leicht bewöelkt), signed, numbered and dated '239-2 Richter 1969' (on the reverse), oil on canvas, 78¾ x 78¾ in. (200 x 200 cm.). Painted in 1969. Price Realised: $19,346,500.  Bought by an anonymous.

Provenance: Galerie Ursula Lichter, Frankfurt
Private collection, Germany
Anon. sale; Sotheby's, London, 2 December 1993, lot 35
Private collection, Belgium
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Literature: XXXVI Venice Biennale, German Pavilion, Gerhard Richter, exh. cat., Venice, 1972, p. 41, no. 239-2 (illustrated).
J. Harten, ed., Gerhard Richter, Bilder/Paintings 1962-1985, Cologne, 1986, pp. 108 and 395, no. 239-2 (illustrated).
B. Buchloh, ed., Gerhard Richter: Werkübersicht/Catalogue Raisonné, 1962-1993, vol. III, Ostfildern-Ruit, 1993, p. 159, no. 239-2 (illustrated in color).
A. Zweite, Gerhard Richter: Catalogue Raisonné, 1993-2004, New York, 2005, p. 24 (illustrated in color). 

Exhibited: Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Gerhard Richter, February-March 1970.