A Picasso painting has set a world record for artwork at auction selling for almost $180 million dollars on Monday.

Picasso's Women of Algiers was among dozens of twentieth century masterpieces offered by Christie's auction house in a curated sale titled Looking Forward to the Past.

The buyer of the artwork has not been identified.

A sculpture by Alberto Giacometti set a record for the most expensive sculpture at $141 million.

Christie's Global president Jussi Pylkkanen said buyers came to the event from across the globe.

"Buyers are coming to Christie's from all over the globe. And, tonight, we saw huge amount of competition against American bidding from European buyers and also, as you saw, from Asian buyers."

This comes just a week after three Chinese buyers spent a total of $116 million at an auction of western art at Sotheby's in New York.