New York - A painting by Russian avant-garde artist Kazimir Malevich was sold at a New York auction for a record 60 million dollars despite concerns that the global financial crisis might dampen buyer interest, Sotheby's auction house said Monday night.

According to Sotheby's it was not only the highest price ever fetched for a Malevich, but also the highest sum ever paid in an auction for a Russian art work.

However, the abstract painting Sumprematist Composition, painted by the Russian artist in 1916 had been estimated at a minimum of 60 million dollars.

Edgar Degas'1879 Danseuse au repos or Dancer at rest, which was estimated at a pre-auction price of 40 million dollars, sold below expectations, fetching "only" 37 million dollars.

Malevich's painting is regarded special in his oeuvre as it was painted in the same year he published his Suprematist Manifesto, creating a theoretical basis for a new direction in art.

The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam returned the painting, a composition of differently coloured geometric figures, to the heirs of the artist, who fell from grace in the Soviet Union during the Stalinist era, in the beginning of this year.

Sotheby's did not reveal the identity of the buyer. (dpa)