Turner landscape sells for record $35.8 mn

NEW YORK, April 7: An 1841 Venetian landscape by by J M W Turner sold for 35.8 million dollars, becoming the most expensive British painting ever sold at auction, according to Christie's.

The oil painting, ''Giudecca, La Donna della Salute and San Giorgio,'' was purchased over the telephone by a private collector, the auction house said yesterday.

The previous record for a British painting sold at auction was 21 million dollars in 1990 for John Constable's ''The Lock'', and the highest previous price for a Turner was 9 million dollars for ''Seascape, Folkestone,'' in 1984.

The London-born Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) is considered the most versatile and successful landscape painter of 19th century England and often viewed as a forerunner of modern abstraction.

The record-setting canvas was sold by the St Francis of Assisi Foundation in New York, which supports the missionary effort of the Capuchin Order of Friars Minor.

Reuters