Sotheby’s, set eight records, including one for a sculpture by Anthony Caro, at a London art auction last night. About 8 percent of the buyers were Asian, said Tobias Meyer, Sotheby’s chief of contemporary art.

The top-priced lot was Lucian Freud’s portrait of U.K. picture editor Bruce Bernard. It raised 3.5 million pounds, ($6.2 million) including commission, topping a high estimate of 3 million pounds. The buyer was Christopher Eykyn of the New York firm Eykyn Maclean. He beat a telephone bidder for the 1996 portrait, which shows Bernard sitting with his large fists on his thighs and his eyes cast down.

Sotheby’s took in 30.4 million pounds from the sale, which came near the end of a week of London auctions. The total beat Sotheby’s top estimate of 24.4 million pounds, a sign that wealthy collectors are still buying what’s in vogue even after a near-quadrupling of contemporary prices since 1995.

Posted: 02|10|06 at 10:02 am. Filed under: UK News.