Collectors from around the world gathers at Sotheby's Frieze Week sale in London

KOLKATA: Collectors from around the world gathered in London on October 17 evening for Sotheby's Frieze Week sale, in which a new generation of artists and collectors took centrestage on the international art market. There was frenzied bidding as a group of young artists opened the sale, and one after another soared past their pre-sale high estimates.

Alex Branczik, head of Sotheby's London Contemporary Art Department commented: "Tonight's Contemporary Art Evening Sale - as befits Frieze week - was a celebration of the new. Our auction opened with a firestorm of bidding from collectors eager to snap up a cohort of younger artists who are now becoming hotly pursued - Wade Guyton, Nate Lowman, Alex Hubbard, Oscar Murillo and, making her first appearance at auction, Lynette Yiadom Boakye. A new generation of buyers - more than half the participants tonight were under 50 - pursued a new generation of artists. There were new faces and a tangible buzz in the saleroom."

The star lot of the evening, Glenn Brown's galactic Ornamental Despair sold for £3,554,500 ($5,684,356) (estimate £2-3m), more than 100 times the sum the same work made in 2002 (£32,900). Andreas Gursky's epic panorama, Paris Montparnasse, acquired directly from the artist by Deutsche Telekom for its collection in 1996, sold for £1,482,500/$2,370,814 (estimate £1-1.5m) - a new record for this image, and three times what it achieved when it was last offered at auction in 2001.