Jennifer Aniston Buy Glenn Ligon’s Stranger #44 Painting for $450,000

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Despite the massive hype leading up to the event, Ben Stiller and David Zwirner’s Artists For Haiti charity auction at Christie’s this evening exceeded expectations with the 27 works offered selling for a collective $13.7 million, beating an earlier estimate of $10 million. Jennifer Aniston and boyfriend Justin Theroux hit up auction in New York on Friday night and they didn’t go home empty-handed. The actress, who recently bought, refurbished and sold a house for a whopping $35 million, reportedly dropped a staggering $450,000 at a charity auction on a painting for her new New York Penthouse. Actor and screenwriter Theroux helped his love, snag American artist Glenn Ligon’s Stranger #44,an abstract 2011 work of oil, charcoal and graphite on canvas that seems to match his downtown hipster tastes. The painting was estimated to fetch between $150,000 – $200,000, but bighearted Jennifer upped the ante, topping the record for an amount paid for a Ligon painting. Many of the works sold at Christie’s on Thursday were created for the Art for Haiti auction. A painting by Marlene Dumas titled My mother before she became my mother sold for $2 million, or nearly three times the pre-sale estimate, and was the top seller. Deal – No Deal by Luc Tuymans fetched $1.15 million. Christie’s said the sale was its highest total for a charity auction. Art dealer David Zwirner, who curated the sale, described it as an amazing evening. We are overwhelmed by the support, he said of the results. The sale was organized by actor Ben Stiller’s Stiller Foundation in conjunction with Zwirner. After the auction, Stiller and his wife Christine Taylor hung out with Theroux and Aniston for a late dinner at Il Cantinori. [Observer]