Bacon portrait fetches $34 million in London sale

A portrait of a female nude by Francis Bacon sold for 21.3 million pounds ($33.7 million) at Christie's on Tuesday, helping bring the total for the post-war and contemporary evening sale in London to 80.6 million pounds ($127.5 million).

"Portrait of Henrietta Moraes", painted in 1963, came toward the lower end of estimates of 18-25 million pounds ($28.5 million-$39.5 million) if the buyer's premium is taken into account. But it was still the highest price paid for a painting in its category at auctioneers Christie's London in four years.

Overall, the auction had been expected to raise 56.7-84.0 million pounds after a Mark Rothko painting was withdrawn to be sold privately.

There were three artist auction records, including for Christopher Wool, whose untitled work went under the hammer for 4.9 million pounds, surpassing expectations of 2.5-3.5 million pounds.

The solid results follow bumper sales at Christie's in London last week, when it was offering impressionist and modern works. Those auctions fetched a combined 179.1 million pounds ($283.3 million).

The top end of the art market has survived the euro crisis and slowing economic growth relatively unscathed so far, with prices rising sharply in 2010 and 2011 after the financial crisis took its toll in 2009.

Sotheby's holds its main London post-war and contemporary auction on Wednesday.