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London modern art auction breaks records

A contemporary art auction raised £95 million on Wednesday in London, the highest total for such a sale in Europe, auction house Sotheby’s said.

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Contemporary works, including masterpieces by Francis Bacon, Andy Warhol, go under the hammer

LONDON: A contemporary art auction raised £95 million on Wednesday in London, the highest total for such a sale in Europe, auction house Sotheby’s said. The highlight of the evening was Francis Bacon’s Study Of Nude With Figure In A Mirror, which was bought by a private European collector for £19.9 million, compared to its pre-sale estimate of at least £18 million.

The auction had been expected to raise about £72 million. Despite the high price for the Bacon painting, the record for an artist at auction was established last May, when his Study From Innocent X sold for £26.58 million.

Andy Warhol’s Three Self Portraits, three canvasses dating from 1986, fetched £11.4 million, and were sold to an anonymous buyer. The work had been expected to sell for £10 million. Concetto Spaziale by Lucio Fontana smashed both the pre-sale estimate and record for a work by the artist, £4million and £2.4 million respectively, to sell for £10.3 million.

London’s February contemporary sales, which have previously all been held within a week of each other, are split for the first time and take place amid continuing uncertainty in the world’s financial markets. Christie’s sold 69 percent of the lots at the last sale, the lowest it has achieved since June 2003.

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