Strong demand sees art market weather Europe's economic storm

The high-end art market is weathering Europe's economic storm, with London auctions netting more than £280 million ($514 million) in a week as international bidders snapped up high-profile works.

Sales of Impressionist, modern and surrealist art at rival auctioneers Christie's and Sotheby's saw several pre-sale estimates shattered.

Judd Tully, editor-at-large of Art and Auction magazine, said the two big auction houses had had exceptionally strong sales.

"The art market seems to confound all other financial indicators," he said. "There is a lot of money sloshing around, and it's very global."

Christie's said "new and established buyers from 19 countries" snapped up works at a sale that saw a portrait by Amedeo Modigliani sold to an anonymous telephone bidder for £26.9 million, above its top estimate.

Modigliani's 1919 portrait of his lover Jeanne Hebuterne was the highlight of Christie's Impressionist and modern auctions, which raised £136 million.

Both auction houses held separate surrealist sales that brought strong prices for artists including Rene Magritte and Joan Miro.

At Sotheby's, The Farmer and his Wife, a vivid Miro canvas from 1936 once owned by filmmaker Billy Wilder, sold for just under £5.9 million.

Salvador Dali's 1943 Portrait of Mrs Harrison Williams, an image of a famous New York socialite who later became Countess Mona Bismarck, sold for just under £2.3 million.

Works by Egon Schiele and Claude Monet also commanded high prices although some high-profile lots failed to meet their reserve prices.

Three works by Schiele raised a higher-than-expected total of £14 million at Sotheby's, with one Lovers (Self-portrait With Wally) netting just under £7.9 million, an auction record for a work on paper by the early 20th-century Viennese artist.