A work by American painter Jackson Pollock has reportedly sold for a world record price.

The New York Times newspaper said Mexican financier David Martinez paid $140m for the 1948 masterpiece in a private sale.

US media mogul David Geffen was the previous owner of the drip-and-pour painting.

The previous record prize for a painting was set in June when a portrait by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt was purchased by cosmetics magnate Ronald S Lauder for $135m.

Pollock was born in Wyoming in 1912 and died in a car crash in 1956 at the age of just 44.

The influential painter, who battled both alcoholism and depression, was a major force in the abstract expressionist movement.

Picasso's Boy with a Pipe, which was sold for $104m in May 2004, holds the world record for a painting sold at auction.