Eric Clapton's Record-breaking Gerhard Richter Sale Surpassed

Eric Clapton's record-breaking $34.2 million (£22 million) sale of a Gerhard Richter painting has been beaten after a piece by the German artist went under the hammer for $37 million (£23.1 million) on Tuesday (14May13).

The musician put the abstract work, called Abstraktes Bild (809-4), under the hammer at Sotheby's auction house in London last October (12). It broke all previous records for work by a living artist when it surpassed the figure set in 2010 by Jasper Johns' Flag, which sold for $28.6 million (£18.45 million).

However, Richter's work has now smashed its own record after a private American collector snapped up 1968 masterpiece Domplatz, Mailand for $37 million at a Sotheby's contemporary art auction in New York.