LONDON | Tue Dec 6, 2011 10:15pm EST
LONDON (Reuters) - Christie's held a highly anticipated auction of old master paintings in London on Tuesday night, with one of the star works selling for more than 2 million pounds ($3.12 million) above the pre-auction estimate.
"The Battle between Carnival and Lent" by Pieter Brueghel II sold for almost 6.9 million pounds to an anonymous buyer, Christie's said on its website.
The sale price exceeded the pre-auction estimate of 3.5-4.5 million pounds and set the world record price for the artist at auction, Christie's said.
The second highest-priced painting on the night was a Willem van de Velde II work, "Dutch men-o'-war and other shipping in a calm," which sold to a European private collector for nearly 6 million pounds, also a world record price for the artist at auction, Christie's said.
However, the auction's star attraction "Portrait of Juan Lopez de Robredo," by Spanish painter Francisco Goya remained listed on the auctioneer's website as unsold, with an estimated sale tag of 6.2-9.3 million pounds.
The total sale of 24 million pounds, which did not include a sale for the Goya painting, as well as a Nicolaes Maes work that carried an estimated price of 1.5-2.3 million pounds, was just shy of the pre-sale estimate for all the lots of 26 million pounds.
Much of the interest in this week's series of old master and British art auctions in London has been generated by a Velazquez original that was first valued at 300 pounds ($470).
The portrait of an unknown gentleman goes under the hammer on Wednesday and is set to fetch up to 3 million pounds at Bonhams.
($1 = 0.6410 British pounds)
(Reporting by Stephen Mangan; Editing by Michael Roddy)
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