The combined hammer total for the sales at Sotheby's, Christie's and Phillips de Pury was £115m, compared to £107m for 2011*.
Richter's Abstraktes Bild (809-4) was pitched at £9m-12m at Sotheby's Contemporary art evening sale on October 12 but was the kind of über-consignment that would normally feature in the more lucrative summer sales.
It sold at £19m to an anonymous phone bidder, setting a record for a living artist, the price demonstrated how the market for the 80-year-old German painter has risen since Clapton bought it as part of a trio of Richters sold as a single lot for $3.4m (£2.43m) at Sotheby's in 2001. The sum also contributed roughly half the £38.4m total (estimate: £28.5m-39.4m) at Sotheby's 53-lot evening sale, which saw 47 works (89%) sell.
Christie's 61-lot evening sale on October 11 came in at £19.7m, below the estimate of £21m-29.9m, with 45 lots (74%) finding buyers. It was led by an untitled painting by Martin Kippenberger (1953-97) from 1992 which sold at £2.8m to a dealer in room.
Phillips de Pury's slimmer 36-lot Contemporary art evening sale on October 10 also came in below estimate. On the night, 24 lots (67%) found takers and the total was £10.4m against expectations of £14m-22.1m.
*Please note, these totals include the Contemporary art day sales and Italian art auction held in London during Frieze week.
