Wow! 

Musician Eric Clapton’s Gerhard Richter painting auctioned for $34 Million, 30 Times Purchase

"Abstraktes Bild (809-4)," a 1994 painting by Gerhard Richter. The painting was sold by the rock guitarist Eric Clapton in a Sotheby's "Frieze Week" auction of contemporary works in London on Oct. 12. The work sold for 21.3 million pounds ($34.2 million) -- more than 30 times what Clapton paid for it in 2001. Source: Sotheby's via Bloomberg.



British-born guitarist/singer/songwriter and 17-times Grammy Awardee Eric Clapton (photo below) must be clapping all the way to the bank, for having recently on October 12, 2012 sold a painting by the German artist Gerhard Richter  at a huge gain on his original investment or purchase price. 
The 67-year-old musician Eric Clapton is rich, but just became even richer due to his wise investment in outstanding art. 
Art indeed is not only priceless and sublime, it is also a solid investment almost anywhere in the world.


Photo below of the talented 80-year-old German painter Gerhard Richter. He is now considered the top-selling living artist of the world.  Richter creates outstanding abstract and photorealistic painted works, also photographs and glass pieces. 
Last year at a question and answer forum before his retrospective exhibit at the Tate Modern on October 4, 2011, Richter was asked: "Has the role of artist changed over the years?" The German artist answered: "It’s more entertainment now. We entertain people.”

Additional news report from Scott Reyburn of Bloomberg said: 

Eric Clapton's 1994 oil-on-canvas “Abstraktes Bild (809-4)” was sold by Sotheby’s in London for its “Frieze Week” auction of contemporary artworks with an estimate of 9 million pounds to 12 million pounds. 

The buyer was Natasha Mendelsohn of Sotheby’s, acting for a client on the telephone. She was underbid by her colleague Tobias Meyer, Sotheby’s worldwide head of contemporary art, also taking instructions for another client.

The predominantly red, dark blue and yellow abstract was one of three Richters bought by the U.K.-born guitarist for $3.4 million at Sotheby's New York in November 2001. At the time, this was an auction record for a lot containing abstracts by the German artist, with each worth about a third of the figure. Last night's sale was both a record for Richter at auction and for a living artist at auction.

“People are still ready to pay top prices for great paintings,” Christophe Van de Weghe, a New York dealer, said in an interview. “While the market is selective, the Clapton provenance made a difference. It could have added as much as 20 percent to the price.”

Richter, 80, who works in Cologne in both figurative and abstract idioms, has become the world’s most bankable living artist, dealers said. His highly decorative abstractions, often painted with a squeegee, have become particularly sought-after by wealthy international collectors and set seven of the 10 highest prices paid for the artist at auction.

Rising Richter

When Clapton bought his painting, the average auction price of a Richter work was $461,910, according to the database Artnet. 

Values have been boosted by the critical and popular success of recent retrospectives at Tate Modern, London, and the Pompidou Center, Paris, dealers said.

The previous auction record for the artist was the $21.8 million for the 1993 “Abstraktes Bild (798-3)” at Christie’s International, New York, in May.