Bacon hailed the new Picasso as triptych sets £43m record

Triptych 1976, a huge allegorical triple canvas inspired by Greek mythology, soared over its £36 million ($70 million) estimate as a protracted bidding war between two telephone bidders escalated until the painting went to a mystery European buyer.

Sotheby's auctioneer Tobias Meyer said: "It is one of the great 20th century paintings. Francis Bacon describes the human condition.

"He has taken the place of Picasso." Last night's sale surpassed the £37.4 million ($72.8 million) fetched by Mark Rothko's White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose) at Sotheby's New York exactly a year ago and marked the fifth time in three years that a record has been set for the sale of a Bacon painting.

The previous record was £27 million ($52.7 million) sale of his Papal-inspired Study from Innocent X, 1962, set at Sotheby's New York in May last year.

But the evening's other showcase lot, Rothko's 1956 Orange, Red, Yellow, went unsold, failing to find a bidder prepared to meet its $35 million estimate. That fate also befell Brit art icons Damien Hirst and Banksy.

Hirst's 1997-98 medicine cabinet Da Silvano's failed to sell and his 1996 canvas

"...inarguably beautiful painting (for over the sofa)" fetched £ 600,000 ($1.16 million), below its £1 million estimate.

But Hirst's 2006 spot painting Dicyclohexylammonium Nitrate sold for £970,000 ($1.89 million), above its high estimate of £920,000 ($1.8 million).

The artist's dealer Jay Jopling afterwards pointedly refused to comment on Hirst's mixed night.

Banksy's stellar auction record was blighted by the failure of 2006's Goyainspired Sale Ends Today to attract any bids matching its low £308,000 estimate.

Overall however, Sotheby's was delighted with its sale which saw £186.3 million ($362 million) worth of art sold, the highest total in the auction house's 264-year history.

It exceeded the evening's high estimate total of £183.1 million ($356.7 million) with 73 of the 83 lots sold. The average lot sold for £2.56 million ($5 million).

Other artist records included American installation artist Dan Flavin, whose 1969 "monument" for V.

Tatlin sold for £770,000 ($1.5 million) and French artist Yves Klein whose 1962 painting IKB 1 went for £12.2 million ($23.6 million) exceeding its high estimate by an amazing £8.2 million ($16 million). A record was also established for Robert Rauschenberg, the American Pop Art pioneer who died on Monday - his 1963 oil and silkscreen canvas Overdrive went under the hammer for £7.5 million ($14.6 million).

The Sotheby's sale capped a buoyant fortnight of New York auction sales which has seen the art market confound sceptics who had forecast it would fall victim to the global economic slowdown.

Mr Meyer added: "It's been an unbelievable couple of weeks.

"The market is super-healthy. I was hoping that it would be good but not that good."

The seller of Triptych was the Moueix family, owners of Chateau Petrus, the legendary Bordeaux wine, who bought it in Paris in 1977.