Richter's Abstract
Richter's 1990 blue-hued "Abstraktes Bild" sold for a double-estimate 3.2 million pounds to Sandra Nedvetskaia, a Zurich-based Christie's employee who looks after Russian clients. The seller bought the painting for 657,600 pounds at Christie's, London, in June 2005-an investment that has increased more than four-fold in less than six years.
The most expensive of six artist records set during the evening was the 4.1 million pounds paid by the New York and London dealers Eykyn Maclean for the 1962 work "L'annee derniere a Capri (titre exotique)" by the French painter Martial Raysse.
The Pop-period portrait of the artist's girlfriend hadn't been seen on the market for 30 years and had a high estimate of 1.5 million pounds. The price was an auction record for a living French artist.
A total of 58 of the 63 lots were successful at an event estimated to make as much as 51.8 million pounds. Christie's auction in June 2008, held at the height of the art boom, raised 86.2 million pounds.