Auction 'sets modern art record'

Warhol's self portraits in red, white and blue attracted interest Enlarge Image

Contemporary art works, including masterpieces by Francis Bacon and Andy Warhol, have gone under the hammer for more than £95m, Sotheby's has said.

The London auction house claimed the total set a record for contemporary art auctions in Europe.

Bacon's 1969 Study of Nude With Figure In A Mirror was sold to a European private collector for nearly £20m.

Three Self Portraits by Warhol, a rare trinity of canvases from 1986, fetched almost £11.5m from an anonymous buyer.

Another of Bacon's work - a small portrait thought to be the first portrayal of his last great love, John Edwards - sold for about £2m.

Koons' sculpture

Concetto Spaziale, La Fine Di Dio, by Lucio Fontana smashed all expectations when it sold for more than £10m, some £6m more than the estimated sale price.

The sale also broke Fontana's previous record price of £2.4m.

Jeff Koons' sculpture Kiepenkerl was expected to sell for between £1.5m and £2.5m but fetched more than £3m on the night.

Pieces by Gilbert and George, Bridget Riley and Andreas Gursky were also auctioned off.

Buyers at Sotheby's pay a premium of between 12% and 25% to the auction house which is included in all the sale prices.