I think it would be better if nobody owned anything, but they didn't starve. Had enough paint and enough pianos and everything else.

The previous record price was A$1. A member of the prominent Boyd artistic dynasty in Australia his relatives included painters sculptors architects or other arts professionals. 68 million setting a new record for a Boyd work.

His wife Yvonne Boyd (née Lennie) and son Jamie and daughters Polly and Lucy are also painters. Several famous works set Biblical stories against the Australian landscape such as The Expulsion (1947–48) now at Art Gallery of New South Wales. Boyd's work ranges from impressionist renderings of Australian landscape to starkly expressionist figuration and many canvases feature both.