A painting by Pierre Soulages, who soon fills 100 years, is sold for over 70 million dollars at an auction.

The French artist Pierre Soulages has at the age of 99 years set a record for its most expensive painting sold at an auction.

It came to pass, when a Soulages painting from 1960 on Wednesday was sold for 9.6 million euros in an auction house in Paris. It is equivalent to over 70 million.

Pierre Soulages's 100th birthday on christmas eve and is still active as a painter.

He decided at the end of the 1970s virtually the only use the color black in his paintings. He is referred to according to the AFP news agency, therefore, among other things, as "the black maleriers master".

the Work, which was sold on Wednesday, consisted also of several thick black stripes.

The former French president, François Hollande has previously described Soulages as the "world's greatest living artist".

Soulages told in an interview with AFP earlier this year that he burns his paintings, unless he is 100 percent satisfied.

- I am burning the painting outside. If it is mediocre, so smoke it out, it sounded from the nearly 100-year-old artist.

His most recently sold painting had been valued at six million euros.

After a bidding war that also involved asian and american collectors, "the work will finally be added to a european assembly."

It informs Julie Ralli from the auction house Tajan.

Soulages-painting was Kalebet originally purchased by James Johnson Sweeney, who has been warden of New York's Museum of Modern Art and director of the Guggenheim museum. It had been at Sweeneys family until now.

The world-famous French museum the Louvre opens 11. december the doors for a comprehensive exhibition that pays tribute to Soulages' career.

/ritzau/AFP