Fueled by a new and decidedly deep-pocketed breed of international bidders, Sotheby’s blazed to a £30.3 million/$52.9 million evening sale, easily eclipsing its previous high mark for a London contemporary art auction of £19.3 million set last June.

Seven artist records were broken, and six lots exceeded £1 million. Only two of the 62 lots offered failed to find buyers. The buoyant result effortlessly exceeded the pre-sale high estimate of £24 million, again indicating an undiminished demand for paintings and sculpture in an already surging market.

Record prices were achieved across a broad spectrum, from a rare Pop Art collage from 1969 by Richard Hamilton [lot 7] to a powerful figurative sculpture from 2000 by Antony Gormley [lot 55].

It proved to be a fitting climax to a week of frenzied buying for the increasingly globalized London art market.

Top Five Prices:

Lot 21—Lucian Freud, Bruce Bernard (seated); Sold for: £3,536,000/$6,169,613 (est. £2-3 million)

This arresting, 1996 portrait of Freud’s longtime friend and author of a critically acclaimed monograph of the artist, looks uncomfortable and vulnerable. Acutely aware of Freud’s ability of penetrating the sitter’s psyche, Bernard is rigidly attentive, his gnarly hands practically twitching on his lap.

Freud painted another portrait of Bernard in 1992, a standing pose with the writer’s hands jammed in his pants’ pockets, as if to avoid closer scrutiny.

New York private dealer Christopher Eykyn of Eykyn Maclean bought the seated portrait for an anonymous client.

It was one of the major offerings that came with a financial guarantee from the auction house, assuring the seller of a secret amount no matter what the outcome. Given the strong price, Sotheby’s also got an extra portion of profit on top of the buyer’s premium.

2. Lot 14—Gerhard Richter, Untitled; Sold for: £2,752,000/$4,801,690 (est. £1.5-2 million)

This life-size, 70-square-inch oil painting from 1967 is an early investigation into color, following Richter’s now iconic black-and-white paintings of the ’60’s.

In a blurry manipulation of figurative and abstract elements, Richter barely hides the reclining nude, sourced by the artist from some amateur erotic photograph.Though the viewer, placed in a voyeuristic role, can’t miss the figure’s suggestively spread legs, there are so many painterly layers separating the work from its raunchy source that it becomes a grander kind of abstraction.

Always aware of art history and the potent role of the female model, Richter’s painting also brings to mind the great nudes of Titian, Manet and Courbet.

3. Lot 19—Francis Bacon, Two Figures at a Window; Sold for: £2,584,000/$4,508,563 (est. £2.8-2.2 million)

School of London painters continued to make strong showings, and this relatively early oil painting from 1953 certainly qualified as a stunning example.

Painted the same year as Bacon’s first Pope, this experimental composition is more abstract, with the figures in the cube-like space appearing farther away from the viewer, making them both ghostly and mysterious. The image conveys a kind of minimal, theatrical stage setting or, conversely, a more antique form of a softly focused camera obscura.

It was another guaranteed lot that sold to an anonymous telephone bidder.

The painting last sold at Sotheby’s New York in May 1999 for $1,542,500, making a handsome return for the seller.

4. Lot 11—Roy Lichtenstein, Still Life with Candy Jar; Sold for: £2,136,000/$3,726,893 (est. £1-1.5 million)

As if cleverly distilled from a table-groaning, 17th-century Dutch still life, this Pop Art interpretation from 1972 shows off Lichtenstein’s elegant and graphically masterful talents.

Set against a rather severe backdrop in pancake-flat shades of black and brown, a cinched white curtain is the only adornment framing the striped table.

Pared down to the essentials, one end of the table is dominated by an empty though ornate glass candy jar. The other end is anchored by a pyramid arrangement of grapes, a banana and lemon. Though no apples or pears are portrayed, you can’t help thinking (also) of Cezanne’s authoritatively modern still lives.

As in much of the evening action, telephone bidding dominated the high-end offerings, taking away some of the spectator-sport excitement.

5. Lot 12—Andy Warhol, Mao 7; Sold for: £1,464,000/$2,554,387 (est.£400-600,000)

This 50-by-42 inch acrylic and silkscreen ink painting is from 1973, executed at a time when the Cold War and threat of a Communist world order was very much part of the popular culture—making Mao’s glamorized image a radical parody.

Instead of the black-and-white propaganda tones of the great leader’s appropriated image, Warhol "tarted" it up with hand-painted passages of pinks, greens and yellows.

Fresh to the market, the riveting portrait triggered intense bidding. New York art trader Alberto Mugrabi , a major player in the Warhol market, bought the painting at more than double its high estimate.

Mugrabi was the underbidder on Warhol’s Diamond Dust Shoes [lot 51] (est. £250-350,000) later in the sale for £612,800.

Hottest Lot:

Lot 16—Sir Anthony Caro, Sculpture Two; Sold for: £1,408,000/$2,456,678 (est. £250-350,000)

By far, the largest and heaviest offering of the evening, Caro’s monumental steel sculpture, painted in a zippy shade of British racing green, captured the fancy of the salesroom and elicited fevered bidding.  It was bought by London dealer Timothy Taylor.

Considered a significant and even defining early example in Caro’s long career, the 1962 steel work has been widely exhibited and is the most important of his sculptures to appear at auction.

Adding to that high mantle, the sculpture was acquired directly from the artist in 1963 by the late Donald Gomme, just before Caro’s breakthrough show at London’s Whitechapel Gallery. His estate put it up at auction.

It smashed Caro’s previous record for Strand from 1966 that sold at Christie’s London in June 2002 for £77,675/$118,407.

Comments from the Crowd:

“The market is incredibly strong,” said Stefano Basilico, of New York’s Art Advisory Services, who bought the Sigmar Polke painting Herr Kluncker [lot 13] from 1964 for £960,000. “Some great things went for great prices, which is a good thing, and some not so great things went for great prices, which is not the way it should be.”

“Warhol is a global artist in an increasingly global market,” said New York art dealer Larry Gagosian.

“I think it looks like new levels and its pretty much across the board,” said London dealer Graham Southern of Haunch of Venison, who acquired Keith Tyson’s mixed-media Art Machine [lot 62] for a record £60,000. “It seems pretty difficult to argue with it.”

“I am totally confused by the market,” said New York dealer Barbara Mathes who bought at the auction, but preferred not to identify her purchase. “You wonder how long the prices can keep going up, yet there seems to be insatiable demand, and price doesn’t get in the way.”