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"A painting owned by guitarist Eric Clapton has sold for over \u00C2\u00A321m ($33.7m) at auction. The abstract piece by German artist Gerhard Richter was sold to an anonymous telephone bidder at London&amp;#039;s Sotheby&amp;#039;s on Friday (October 12).  According to Sky News, Abstraktes Bild beat pre-sale estimates by \u00C2\u00A39m ($14.5m) and set a new auction record for the artist. Two telephone bidders battled for the oil on canvas piece - taken from Clapton&amp;#039;s private collection - for more than five minutes, with auction attendees breaking into a round of applause when the winner was confirmed. Prior to the sale, the record for a Richter painting was just over \u00C2\u00A313m ($21m), following a New York auction that took place in May. Speaking before the lot sold, Alex Branczik - senior director of contemporary art at Sotheby&amp;#039;s - described the painting as &amp;quot;one of the great abstract masterpieces by Gerhard Richter&amp;quot;.  &amp;quot;Its appearance on the market presents collectors with the unique opportunity to acquire an outstanding work by one of the greatest living painters,&amp;quot; he added.  Richter, 80, currently works from a studio near Cologne and produces both abstract and figurative paintings as well as photographs. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/news/a430443/eric-clapton-sells-gerhard-richter-painting-for-21m/>