The painting called Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, was painted by Warhol in 1964 using a famous photograph as inspiration.
The auction ended with a sale price of $170m, which rose to $195m with taxes and fees taken into account. The final price beats the previous record for the 20th Century work of art “Les Femmes d'Alger” by Pablo Picasso which sold for $179.4m.
The winning bidder was US art dealer Larry Gagosian, who owns a chain of art galleries.
All the money obtained from the sale will go to the Thomas and Doris Ammann Foundation Zurich, which works to develop healthcare and education programmes for children around the world.