Miro record smashed at London auction

Spanish painter Joan Miro's 1927 masterpiece "Peinture (Etoile Bleue)" sold at a London auction for over £23 million ($37 million, 29.26 million euros) on Tuesday, an auction record for the artist. A telephone bidder at Sotheby's sale of impressionist and modern art beat off competition from three rivals to secure the seminal abstract work for £23,561,250. The painting, which has tripled in price since it was last sold in 2007, belongs to the Catalan's "dream paintings" cycle. The final price is the most paid at a London auction this year and comfortably exceeded pre-auction estimates of £10-15 million. Helena Newman, Chairman of Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art Department, Europe, said: "We are thrilled to have been able to offer Miro's Peinture (Etoile Bleue) in tonight's auction. "At a time of unprecedented demand for the best examples of 20th-Century art, this masterpiece by Miro not only shattered the previous record for the artist, but also made more than three times the price it achieved five years ago."