ART > Hockney painting sells for record £2.6m

The record price for a David Hockney painting has been smashed after one of his most familiar works fetched £2.6 million at auction.

The Splash - which depicts the instant after someone dives into a swimming pool - easily beat the previous high of £1.9 million set by A Neat Lawn just six weeks ago.

Bidders from around the world competed to own the 1966 work as it went under the hammer at Sotheby's in central London.

Including buyer's premium, the final price was £2.92 million.

The Splash is the second painting in a series of three, all in the Bradford-born artists distinctive minimalist style, with A Bigger Splash in the collection at Tate Modern in London and A Little Splash in private hands.

Held in a private collection in California for the past 20 years, The Splash had been estimated to sell for between £2.2million and £3million in the contemporary art auction.

The Splash sold for just £25,000 when it last came up for auction at Sotheby's in London, in 1973.