A nightmarish painting by Francis Bacon has become the most expensive work of contemporary art ever sold at auction.

Triptych, 1976, consists of three panels depicting a headless human form surrounded by three vultures and flanked by two portraits of disfigured human faces.

Described as the finest Bacon in private hands it is, like much of the artist’s work, packed with imagery rich in mythological and allegorical significance.

Last night it demolished the world record for a contemporary work when it sold to an anonymous bidder for $86.3 million at Sotheby's in New York.

The previous mark was set last May when Mark Rothko's White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose) fetched $72.8 million.

The new record was set 24 hours after Lucien Freud, Bacon’s long-time friend on the London art scene of the 1950s and 1960s, became the most expensive living artist.\]#

His monumental oil portrait Benefits Supervisor Sleeping sold for $33.6 million at Christie's contemporary arts sale on Tuesday night.

Bacon, who was born in Ireland in 1909 to English parents and moved to London in 1926. He had no formal training as an artist but stated to exhibit in the 1930s and became well known a decade later.

Long before his death from a heart attack in 1992, Bacon's tortured, mutated images expressing despair, pain and alienation had made him one of the most prominent artists of his lifetime, with major retrospectives in Paris in 1971, the Metropolitan Museum in New York in 1975 and the Tate in London in 1985.

Triptych, 1976 has featured in all the most important shows of Bacon’s work since it was first exhibited in Paris in 1977 and had been owned by the same private European collector until last night.

Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s London deputy director for contemporary art, described the work as a “totemic triptych”.

“It created an overnight sensation when it was first exhibited in Paris in 1976,” he said.

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