That's one expensive watercolor

A painting by JMW Turner has sold at auction for £5.832m - a record for a British watercolour.

The Blue Rigi was sold to an anonymous telephone bidder after a 10-minute bidding battle at Christie's in London.

The work, which Christie's described as "the most important watercolour to appear at auction for over 50 years", had been expected to fetch about £2m.

From the BBC.

ADDENDUM: You can still get a great Turner watercolor for a lot less, it seems:

The largest of 10 known watercolours of Hastings by JMW Turner has been bought by the town's museum.

"Hastings: Fish Market on the Sands, Early Morning" was acquired at a Sotheby's auction for £210,000.

Read the rest at the BBC, with another writeup at the 24 Hour Museum.

Posted by David on June 5, 2006 2:34 PM