A total £44,359,900 for contemporary art sold at Sotheby’s so far this season, which includes Looking Closely, is the highest total for a contemporary art sales series in London since July 2008.

Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild sold for £7,209,250.

Meanwhile the 100-kilogramme of Ai Weiwei’s handmade porcelain Sunflower Seeds (Kui Hua Zi) fetched £349,250 (£3.50 per seed).

“It’s well above combined pre-sale expectations – representing the second-highest total for a February contemporary art sales series in London and the highest total for a contemporary art sales series in London since July 2008.

“More than 200 clients from all corners of the globe registered to bid from the telephones and in the standing-room-only saleroom.

Enthusiastic bidding for the first lot of the sale for Sunflower Seeds, set the pace of the auction which went on to establish sell-through rates of 91.5 per cent by lot and 95.5 per cent by value,” Sotheby’s said in their website.

Source: www.sothebys.com