Auction draws £61m bids

An array of Impressionist and modern art fetched more than £61million when works by Renoir, Van Gogh and Modigliani were auctioned at Sotheby's in London.

The highest amount paid for a single piece was £ 6,165,600 for Modigliani's Garçon à la Veste Bleu.

Among the highlights of the sale - the largest of its kind in Britain for a decade - was Van Gogh's Deux Crabes which sold for £5,157,600, surpassing its guide estimate of £1.5 million. Egon Schiele's 1913 work Liebespaar fetched £1,909,600.

Renoir's 1871 work Portrait de Rapha Mantre, expected to fetch at least £6 million, was withdrawn when it did not reach its reserve price.

A two-day auction of Impressionist and modern art starts at Christie's in London today.