Jusepe de Ribera’s "Prometheus". Courtesy Sotheby's

Sotheby’s Old Masters sale on 8 July kicked off with 56 lots of Renaissance and Baroque masterworks from the collection of Barbara Piasecka Johnson, the Johnson & Johnson heiress who was a major collector in the 1970s and ’80s. Nearly half of the works in the collection were Old Master paintings, all of which found buyers. The highlight of the session and, indeed the most talked-about painting of the week, was Jusepe de Ribera’s Prometheus, an emotionally charged canvas with a strong appeal to modern taste, depicting the Greek god being tortured by an eagle that feeds on his liver every day.

The Johnson session fetched a total of just under £10 million against a pre-sale estimate of £5.2-7 million. Of the 56 lots, 44 found buyers, for a sold rate of 94.6 percent by value and 78.6 percent by lot. The salesroom had little interest in the collection except for the Ribera, though, and almost all of the action took place over the phones, while the audience talked loudly among themselves.

That session realised £26,134,050, toward the low end of the pre-sale estimate range of £24-37 million, with 33 of 48 lots finding buyers for a sold rate of 81.6 percent by value and 68.8 percent sold by lot.

Three telephone bidders competed for Sir Anthony van Dyck’s half-length Portrait of Endymion Porter, which brought £2,057,250 (est. £1-1.5 million). Gordon, who described the estimate as being on the "conservative side," described Porter - a diplomat, connoisseur, and courtier to Charles I, as well as a close friend of the artist - as "a terribly significant sitter."

Gabriel Metsu’s A Woman Selling Game from a Stall sold for £1,161,250 (est. £1.2-1.8 million), failing to achieve its estimate but setting an auction record for the 17th-century Dutch artist nonetheless. Another painting that sold a little below expectations was George Stubbs’s Portrait of Baron de Robeck Riding a Bay Hunter (1791), which brought £2,057,250 (est. £2-3 million).

Still, a year ago, Sotheby’s July Old Master sale earned £51,488,650 on expectations of £30-44.2 million, with 69 of 90 works moving for a sold rate of 76.2 percent by lot and 93 percent by value and the house’s second highest total for a single session of Old Masters ever.

Richard Prince’s "Country Nurse" (2003), sold for £1,721,250 (est. £1.5-2 million). Courtesy Christie's

Christie’s did set three artist records, though, including one for Alighiero Boetti’s Arte Povera monochrome diptych Rosso Gilera 60 1232, Rosso Guzzi 60 1305 (1967), executed in industrial paint on metal, which sold to London/New York/Geneva private dealer Daniella Luxembourg for £713,250 (est. £280-350,000). The work sped out of the salesroom like the famous Italian motorcycles from which its title derives.

Countryman Lucio Fontana did not fare as well, suffering two buy-ins: a small, late water paint on canvas, Concetto spaziale, Attese (1966), which flopped at £500,000 (est. £600-900,000), and a black terracotta work, Concetto spaziale, natura (1959-60), which died at a chandelier bid of £1.3 million (est. £1.3-1.9 million).

A third Concetto spaziale, dated 1957 and distinctive for its black, punctured background and dynamic yellow strokes, was chased by four bidders to the exact price of the Boetti record, £713,250 (est. £300-400,000). A star for his slashed and punctured paintings and usually a titan in the salesroom, Fontana is suffering in part from a recent run-up in prices that make him something like an Italian Warhol.

Speaking of Warhol, only one example from the Pop star graced tonight’s sale, and it didn’t even make the top 10, though it did sell. The 22-inch-square Self-Portrait (1966), bearing a fabulous screen print and complete with a fantastic provenance (early Warhol collector Leon Kraushar), went to a bidder in the room for £690,580 (est. £500-800,000). The work last appeared at auction at Christie’s London in February 2008, when it was bought in against an estimate of £1.4-2 million that makes tonight’s hammer price look like a bargain.

It was slim pickings for other London School artists, though that did help what was on offer. A decidedly mediocre and small-scaled Francis Bacon, Study for Portrait (circa 1986–88), which bears a Bacon-estate provenance, sold to a bidder in the room for £870,050 (est. £800,000–1.2 million).

High-end works seemed loopy overall, with the top lot, Peter Doig’s 78¾-by-108-inch Night Playground (1997-98), attracting at least four bidders and selling to the telephone for £3,009,250 (est. £1.5-2 million). Although relatively huge, that price was only about half of the Doig record set when White Canoe sold to Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk for £5.7 million at Sotheby’s London in February 2007. London private dealer Suzanne Pollen was the under bidder for this evening’s sale.