Gerhard Richter painting sells for record £21m

An oil painting by the German artist Gerhard Richter has sold for £21m ($34m) — an auction record for a work by a living artist.

Abstraktes Bild, painted in 1994 , which was owned by rock star Eric Clapton, has been described as a masterpiece of calculated chaos.

The artwork, expected to fetch £9-12m, was sold to an anonymous bidder at Sotheby’s in London on Friday.

A round of applause broke out as the painting went under the hammer.

Gerhard Richter, 80, who lives in Cologne, is considered by some to be the world’s greatest living painter — via redwolf.newsvine.com