A colossal self-portrait by “pope of pop” Andy Warhol has sold for $17.4 million at Christie’s in London, doubling pre-auction expectations.

The recently discovered 1967 piece, which measures 1.8 metres square, depicts Warhol with a hand to his mouth in what the auction house called “one of the most representative and iconic images of the artist”.

“It has been an incredibly exciting journey to work with a previously unknown work by Andy Warhol, particularly one with such historic importance,” Francis Outred, head of Post-War and Contemporary Art, Christie’s Europe said.

A sumptuous painting of the Madonna and child by Renaissance master Titian sold for a record $16,882,500 Thursday in New York.

The Sotheby’s auction easily broke a 20-year-old record of $13.6 million for a Titian.

The painting, “A Sacra Conversazione: The Madonna and Child with Saints Luke and Catherine of Alexandria,” depicts the Virgin Mary and the two saints posed around a chubby infant Jesus as he stretches out his left hand.

Tod’s, the Italian luxury shoe group has announced a new project to fund the cost of the restoration of Rome’s historic Colosseum, at a cost of €25 million.

According to the Telegraph, The ancient Roman arena is blackened by pollution and rocked by vibrations from a nearby subway line.

The project will happen in eight stages and has been finalized by the Italian Ministry of Culture and Tod’s Group President Diego Della Valle.

Mexican beer brand Corona has launched a new hotel in Madrid, called “Save the Beach hotel” and made entirely of rubbish.

It is constructed out of 12 tons of items found littered on Europe’s beaches and is designed to raise awareness of the plight of coastlines and seas around the world.

Designed by German artist HA Schult, it will be open to visitors in the Spanish city between January 19 and 23, coinciding with a tourism fair held there — a similar exhibit was installed in Rome for the World Environment Day week.

Two matching portraits of princess Diana and Prince Charles by pop art icon Andy Warhol have gone on display for the first time since 1982, ahead of being sold.

The paintings show Charles in naval attire against a blue background. His first wife Diana wears a formal dress and is pictured against a pink background.

They were made using synthetic polymer and silkscreen ink on canvas and marked the couple’s wedding in 1981.

A painting of sunflowers and a nude by French artist Paul Gauguin is expected to fetch up to 10 million pounds at auction next month, Christie’s said Friday.

Gauguin’s Nature morte à l’Esperance, a still life painted in 1901 when he was living in Tahiti, will be the star lot of a sale of impressionist and modern art in London.

The painting was presented to the media on Friday, the first time it has been seen in public since 1989.