Sotheby's art sale tops estimates, Freud disappoints

LONDON (Reuters) - Sotheby's beat expectations at its contemporary art sale on Wednesday, underlining the strength of the market a week after a Giacometti statue broke auction records by selling for $104.3 million.

But a Lucian Freud self-portrait, one of the sale's highlights, failed to match expectations, selling for 2.8 million pounds ($4.4 million).

The auctioneer sold art worth 54.1 million pounds at its London sale, against estimates of 32.3-45.2 million and three times the total at the same sale last year.

The top lot on the night was Willem De Kooning's "Untitled XIV," which fetched 4 million against an estimate of 2-3 million. Sale figures include buyer's premium, estimates do not.

Yves Klein's "F 88" sold for 3.3 million, in the middle of pre-sale expectations, while Freud's self-portrait sporting a black eye after an altercation with a taxi driver undershot expectations of 3-4 million pounds. The result underscores a swift return of confidence in high-end art after auctions shrank sharply last year.

Buyers backed away amid financial turmoil and owners held on to their most prized assets until the bull market returned.

Some experts attribute the success of recent sales to pent-up demand from the super-rich as the best works finally find their way back into the auction rooms.

Chinese buyers have joined Russians in bidding for top lots, and private and institutional buying from the Middle East, where major new museums are opening, have also supported the market.

Sotheby's peer Christie's expects to raise 26.3-38.3 million at a post-war and contemporary sale in London on Thursday.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Louise Ireland)