Gauguin painting is most expensive art work ever sold

A painting by French artist Paul Gauguin has become the most expensive art work ever sold after it was bought for close to $300 million US dollars or £197 million.

The piece called 'Nafea Faa Ipoipo' or 'When Will You Marry?', which was painted in 1892, was sold to a museum in Qatar.

The painting's former owner Rudolf Staechelin declined to reveal the identity of the buyer or confirm the price. Suggestions that the painting was secured by Qatar have not been confirmed by officials in the state.

If reports of the price tag are accurate it would mean the sale exceeds the previous record of $259 million US dollars believed to have been spent on a painting by Paul Cezanne in 2011.

Qatari buyers were also said to have been behind that purchase.