Irish billionaire John Magnier is to sell a €125m painting at auction in New York next month.

Amedeo Modigliani’s nude painting "Nu couche (sur le cote gauche)" reportedly has the highest guide price of any work of art this season.

The piece will be the star lot of Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern art sale on May 14 in New York.

Mr Magnier bought the painting for $26.9m (€22m) at Christie’s in 2003.

The piece is from the Italian painter’s 1917 production and is the largest canvas he ever painted.

“This is among the greatest modern paintings in private hands,” Simon Shaw, Sotheby’s co-head of Impressionist and modern art told Bloomberg News.

“The scale, the power, the subtlety, the fine level of finish -- it’s something he really threw himself into.

“He was painting it as a masterpiece."

Mr Magnier is the owner of the Coolmore Stud, and has produced hundreds of major horserace winners.