British actor Hugh Grant received $21 million Tuesday at auction at Christie’s in New York, for a 1963 Andy Warhol portrait of Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor.

The portrait, titled “Liz (Colored Liz),” was bought by an anonymous bidder by phone for $23.7 million Tuesday at Christie's auction house; this includes about 12 per cent commission, according to the Times Online.

The Pop artwork had been estimated to sell for between $25 million and $35 million. The sale has nevertheless set a record for the Liz series. The previous auction record for any of Warhol’s Liz series was set in 2005, when jeweler Laurence Graff paid $12.6 million at Sotheby’s, for a portrait with a deep-red background, according to the Times.

Grant’s “Liz” has a turquoise background. It is special because at the time Warhol painted it, Taylor suffered from a life-threatening illness.

Earlier this year, Warhol’s “Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I)” became the artist’s auction record, selling for $71.7 million at Christie’s in May. The work also dates from 1963 and is part of a series that drew on photographs of fatal accidents. According to the auction house, the painting had been part of private collections for decades.

Also as part of Christie's post war and contemporary art evening sale in New York Tuesday was “Diamond (Blue),” a sculpture from Jeff Koons' 1994-2005 “Celebration” series, sold to the Gagosian Gallery for $11.8 million, according to Christie's spokeswoman Milena Sale.

Mark Rothko's 1995 “Untitled (Red, Blue, Orange)” was sold to an anonymous bidder for $34.2 million, slightly higher than its pre-auction estimate. It was the top seller at the auction.

The Times Online reports that Hugh Grant, star of films such as “Notting Hill” and “Bridget Jones' Diary,” had bought “Liz (Colored Liz)” at auction at Sotheby’s six years ago for just $3.6 million.

Christie’s reportedly offered Grant a price guarantee in the range of $20 million if the painting failed to sell. He will reportedly use the sum he has received for “Liz” to acquire works by younger artists.