It’s Golden Girls . . . gone wild!
A topless painting of actress Bea Arthur — famous for her role as Dorothy on the TV show “Golden Girls” — sold for $1.9 million last night at a Christie’s auction in Midtown.
Artist John Currin’s controversial “Bea Arthur Naked” (pictured) was purchased by an anonymous bidder over the phone.
Currin, who lives in Brooklyn, is known for campy works depicting women in provocative positions.
The bare-breasted 1991 piece, for which the former “Maude” actress never actually sat, was derided as misogynistic by critics when it came out.
Some writers even urged art lovers to boycott Currin’s shows. But his work is now acclaimed and hangs in museums, including the Whitney.
A Christie’s spokesman called the painting “visually lasting.”
“It’s historically significant — it’s radical to sexualize someone people think of as asexual,” spokesman Koji Inoue said.
In addition to the Arthur piece, Jackson Pollock’s “Number 19, 1948” sold for $58 million, the highest ever for any of the New York artists’s works.
All told, $495 million in various works sold last night at Christie’s, a record for a any single auction.