Canaletto smashes record - again

The Canaletto used to hang in the Prime Minister's residence

A painting by Italian master Canaletto has been sold for £18.6m - breaking a world record set just 24 hours earlier.

View of the Grand Canal from Palazzo Balbi was expected to fetch up to £8m.

Its sale to an anonymous phone bidder at Sotheby's shattered a record set on 6 July when another of his works sold at Christie's for £11.4m.

"The Canaletto was an extremely refined work," said Alex Bell, Sotheby's head of Old Master paintings. "I was always convinced it would be warmly received."

The painting was originally purchased by Sir Robert Walpole, Britain's first prime minister, in the 1730s.

It hung in the first floor parlour of 10 Downing Street, which was then Sir Robert's private London residence.

The Sotheby's sale was the first time the painting had appeared at auction for almost 250 years.

Canaletto's View of the Molo fetched £11.4m earlier this week

According to a spokeswoman, there was loud applause in the room at the end of the auction.

The Canaletto that sold at Christie's on Wednesday was also bought by an anonymous phone bidder.

That painting showed the Doge of Venice's barge, the Bucintoro, arriving at the Molo on Ascension Day.

Prior to that sale, the record for a Canaletto was the £9.2m that Andrew Lloyd Webber paid for the Old Horse Guards from St James's Park in 1992.

Canaletto, real name Giovanni Antonio Canale, lived from 1697 to 1768.

He became famous for painting views of the buildings and canals in his native Venice.