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Pieter Brueghel the Younger's The Procession to Calvary became the star of the show at Sotheby’s, selling for a record £5.1 million to German multi-millionaire Gunter Sachs.

But a much hyped 16th-century portrait recently reattributed to Hans Holbein the Younger was spurned by wary collectors. The Holbein, thought to be a portrait of Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger, had held a pre-sale estimate of £2-3 million, but collectors, worried by bad press suggesting that there were doubts about the painting’s authenticity, shut the work out without a single bid.

At Christie’s a 16th-century work recently reattributed to Bolognese painter Ludovico Carracci, titled Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, produced “a collected rush of blood to the head.” Rare and in good condition, the painting was bought for a record £7.4 million by London dealer Luca Baroni on behalf of an anonymous private collector.

Later, an American private buyer bought a pair of recently rediscovered paintings by the 18th-century Frenchman Hubert Robert for £3.3 million, setting yet another record.

The Daily Telegraph: Old Masters, New Records