Sotheby`s had valued the canvas, La Gommeuse, at $60 million. It was painted in Paris in 1901 when the artist was just 19 years old and grieving the suicide of a close friend.
In 2000, during restoration work, Mr Koch discovered that there was another painting on the reverse — a mocking depiction of Picasso`s art dealer — that had been hidden under the lining for a century.
It was a lucrative night for Mr Koch. Sotheby`s also sold his Monet Nympheas (water lilies) study in oil for $33.85 million, clearing its minimum pre-sale estimate of $30 to $50 million.
Another highlight was a Vincent van Gogh, which sold for $54 million.
Paysage sous un ciel mouvemente (moving sky over a landscape) was painted a year before the artist`s death and shows storm clouds over fields outside Arles, France.
One of the finest works by Polish-Russian painter Kazimir Malevich still remained in private hands. Called Mystic Suprematism, it sold for $37.8 million.
A small van Gogh painting of a fat baby in a bonnet, Le Bebe Marcelle Roulin, also smashed its pre-sale estimate by selling for $7.64 million following a prolonged and frenetic bidding war.
David Norman, co-chairman of worldwide impressionist and modern art, joked that it was the most expensive portrait of a baby he had seen in 30 years.
The auction saw Sotheby`s kick back with a strong performance after a rather sluggish sale on Wednesday of $377 million worth of art collected by self-made billionaire Alfred Taubman, a former Sotheby`s chairman.
Mr Taubman did a brief stint in jail in 2002 for price fixing.
The next week sees Christie`s and Sotheby`s go head to head in auction sales six months after the spring season smashed a string of records and netted more than $2.6 billion for the rival auction houses.
The most expensive lots this season are a sumptuous nude by Modigliani valued at $100 million and a pop art masterpiece from Roy Lichtenstein estimated at $80 million.
Both go under the hammer at Christie`s.
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