£9m landscape is second highest price for a Turner

A Turner painting has been sold at auction in New York for £9.1million ($12.9million).

The Temple of Jupiter Panellenius was bought by an anonymous bidder during a sale at Sotheby's in New York.

It the second highest price for a painting by the British master.

The oil landscape is one of only three made by Joseph Mallord William Turner depicting ancient Greece.

First exhibited in 1816, it has for the past 25 years remained in the private collection of fine art dealer Richard Feigen.

It was sold as part of Sotheby's Important Old Masters Paintings sale and the winning bid was made over the telephone.

When the painting went on public show last year, Emmeline Hallmark, head of British paintings at Sotheby's, said: "What makes this picture so valuable is the rarity factor. There are less than 20 Turner oil paintings left in private hands.

"Turner painted it at the height of his career, to hang in the summer exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1816."

The record for a Turner was achieved by Christie's in New York in April 2006, when a Venetian landscape sold for £25milion.

At a separate sale at Christie's in New York on Wednesday, a quartet of Turner oils sold for close to £1.3million.