Another night, a new £116m record

Sotheby's is celebrating a record-breaking night which saw the auction house sell paintings worth more than £115 million.

German and Austrian works of art were among the most expensive items sold last night for a total of £116,699,900. It is the highest sum for a Sotheby's sale in Europe, beating the £105,372,000 raised by rival Christie's on Monday.

The most expensive painting was Franz Marc's Weidende Pferde III (Grazing Horses) which made £12,340,500, more than double its estimate of £6 million. Schokko mit Tellerhut by Russian expressionist Alexej von Jawlensky also exceeded estimates when four bidders drove the final price to £9,428,500.

The paintings were among 25 Expressionist works sold for a total of £39,646,100, a record for such works at a sale. Five lots each sold for more than £5 million at the auction attended by 500 people, with 30 each fetching more than £1 million.

Other highlights included Pablo Picasso's striking 1938 portrait of Dora Maar: Tete de Femme (La Lectrice - Dora Maar), from dealer Heinz Berggruen's collection which sold for £7,412,500. Pieces by Monet, Cézanne, Renoir and sculptor Henry Moore all sold for between £2 million and £7 million.

The sale came after Christie's £105 million total on the first day of London's most expensive month of sales with a projected £530 million of art expected to go under the hammer.

The star attraction - the sale of Francis Bacon's Triptych 1974-1977 takes place at Christie's tonight. It is expected to fetch more than £25 million, the highest estimate for any work offered at auction in Europe.