Pop art's Sinking Sun makes £8.4m

Lichtenstein's work was called a 20th Century icon

Two paintings by pop artist Roy Lichtenstein and Willem de Kooning have both sold for nearly $15.7m (£8.4m) at a modern art auction in New York.

Lichtenstein's Sinking Sun and Kooning's Untitled XVI were snapped up by New York gallery L&M Arts.

The 1964 Lichtenstein piece was "one of the great icons of the 20th Century" said Tobias Meyer of Sotheby's.

The works were the top lots at the sale, where Andy Warhol's can of Campbell's soup went for $11.8m.

All but three of the 66 lots were sold, with many of the artists' works going for much higher then their estimates.

Mr Meyer said the strong sales underlined the appetite among a new generation of collectors for contemporary art.

"It was the most extraordinary sale we have ever had," he said.

Lichtenstein was at the forefront of the 1960s pop art movement - along with Andy Warhol - which brought popular culture into fine art.